by Bret Stalcup

Created on: February 18, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

In Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, Wallace Stevens, using 13 stanzas and 246 words, manages to create a poem of deep philosophical and artistic value. Here is a work that well demonstrates the power of poetic language; transcending definite interpretation, like myth, it provides a match and a mirror for the engaged reader. A match, as the verse ignites thought and interpretation, and a mirror, as this process of interpretation (in conjunction with the nature of the verse) allows us to reflect back upon our subjective assignation of value and meaning, offering the opportunity to gain insight through the process. At the risk of sounding too linear, thought builds upon thought and the more we use language to define and create, the more capable of such we become. In the process we discover (and create) who we are and how we perceive the worldwe expound the boundaries of our Stevensian circles (see verse IX and related commentary below) as well as delve into our subjective natures and, perhaps, come to understand that the two are not far removed. Thus a value of philosophical art.

It is my intention with this paper to offer critique on this work. I have no pretensions of being able to do this justice; rather, upon the foundation of pure enjoyment of analysis, writing and critique this is built. I will list each verse below, with commentary.
I. Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

With this initial verse Stevens has a starting point for inquiry into the subject and its movement through the worldthat is, the relation of consciousness to belief, and the imprisonment of growth that can arise from static belief. This verse is a call-to-armsit is as if Stevens is saying, "Wake up! Descend from the icy peaks, open your eyes and move!" Amongst the rigidity of fixed belief, of strictly demarcated concepts of self and world fostered upon us by the whims of cultural conditioning and the demon Inertia we always have the opportunity to "see" with the eye of the blackbird, and with clear seeing see that we can move into new areas of the world; we just need to melt the ice.
II. I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
A universal human experience; who hasn't known mental/emotional conflict? Frequently this may result from the icebergs of belief crashing into each other; the past may blind us to the best option in the present. Note the tree metaphor for the bodyupright, connected to the ground

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