Analysis of Wallace Stevens 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird :: Wallace Stevens 13 Ways Blackbird Essays

Analysis of Wallace Stevens 13 Ways of Looking at a Black hushingThirteen ways of looking at a merl by Wallace Stevens is a poetryabout what it means to really know something. In this poem, Stevens shows thisconnection by writing a first person poem about a poets observation andcontemplations when viewing a blackbird. He does this by making each stanza anexplanation of a new way he has sensed this blackbird. First, he writes abouthis physical perception of the blackbird as an observer. Then, he writes abouthis mental processes during this time. These are as the thoughts andperceptions of the blackbird itself, as what it must be like to be that bird. Bythe end, he has concluded that by seeing this blackbird, a connection has beenmade and he now knows the blackbird has becomes a persona of him.In the first stanza, he focuses on the eye of the blackbird as anoutside observer. This symbolizes the thoughts and the consciousness of theblackbird. It is also a transition from the observe rs perception to theblackbirds perception. In the instant stanza, Stevens goes on to say that hewas of ?three minds, Like a tree, In which there are three blackbirds.? This wasthe first time he makes the connection amid seeing the blackbird and himhimself metaphorically being the blackbird. He makes this connection even moreclear in the fourth stanza when he says that ?A man and a woman Are one. A manand a woman and a blackbird are one. In the sixth stanza he goes back to beingthe poet observer as he watches the blackbird fly by his icy window. Again inthe next stanza he goes back to the point of view of the blackbird wonder whythe men of Haddam only imagine golden birds instead of realizing the value ofthe common blackbird. At this time, he makes the connection that in seeing andknowing the blackbird it becomes a part of himself. When he says in the eighthstanza ?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 isstill a poet but when he sees, thinks, and writes about the blackbird, in a wayhe is also the blackbird. After this, the black bird and the poet observer areseparated but in the twelfth stanza Stevens writes ?The river is moving. Theblackbird must be flying.? This is meant to show that though the observers