"Thirteen ways of looking at a
blackbird" by Wallace Stevens is a poem about what it means to really know
something. In this poem, Stevens shows this connection by writing a first
person poem about a poet's observation and contemplation's when viewing a
blackbird. He does this by making each stanza an explanation of a new way he
has perceived this blackbird. First, he writes about his physical perception of
the
blackbird as an observer. Then, he writes about the his mental processes
during this time. These are as the thoughts and perceptions of the blackbird
itself, as what it must be like to be that bird. By the end, he has concluded
that by seeing this blackbird, a connection has been made and he now knows the
blackbird has becomes a part of him.
In the first stanza, he focuses on the eye
of the blackbird as an outside observer. This symbolizes the thoughts and the
consciousness of the blackbird. It is also a transition from the observer's perception
to the blackbird's perception. In the
second stanza, Stevens goes on to say that he was of "three minds, Like a
tree, In which there are three blackbirds." This was the first time he
makes the connection between seeing the blackbird and him himself
metaphorically being the blackbird. He makes this connection even more clear in
the fourth stanza when he says that "A man and a woman Are one. A man and
a woman and a blackbird are one." In the sixth stanza he goes back to
being the poet observer as he watches the blackbird fly by his icy window.
Again in the next stanza he goes back to the point of view of the blackbird
wondering why the men of Haddam only imagine golden birds instead of realizing
the value of the common blackbird. At this time, he makes the connection that
in seeing and knowing the blackbird it becomes a part of himself. When he says
in the eighth stanza "I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved
In what I know." he is acknowledging that he is still a poet but
when he sees, thinks, and writes about the blackbird, in a way he is also the
blackbird. After this, the black bird and the poet observer are separated but
in the twelfth stanza Stevens writes "The river is moving. The blackbird
must be flying." This is meant to show that though the observer's
connection with the blackbird is made by
seeing it, after the blackbird is gone he still knows it. It is still a part of
him.
This poem addresses two things. First, it
addresses the epistemological meaning of knowing something. Philosophically, it
could be said that by seeing or thinking about another being through its own
eyes one could make the connection of knowing it. By knowing it, I mean knowing
it's perception of reality. This leads into the second matter that Stevens
addresses in "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Steven's says
that he knows himself as a poet and that is a part of himself as a person. However, since he also
knows the blackbird, that perception makes the blackbird a part of him as well.
This connection is what goes into the conclusion "a man and a woman and a
blackbird are one."
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