Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1917

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Though the poem’s content can be elusive and mysterious, the overall form is rather exact. Stevens lays out 13 ways to look at a blackbird, and each way gets its own separate section with an accompanying number. Section 1 represents the first way of seeing a blackbird, Section 2 represents the second way, and so on. The clear labels turn the poem into a list or an instructional manual. In other words, the poem’s explicit form mimics the overtly organized form of a step-by-step guide or a carefully compiled list. As the blackbird and the environment are agile and fluid, the stable form juxtaposes the unsettled content, and the contrast dramatizes and animates the themes of sight, fluidity, and mystery.

The form within the sections is free verse—that is, the lines don’t have to rhyme or have a certain number of syllables, nor do the stanzas (the sections) have to have a specific number of lines. In keeping with the poem’s elusiveness, Stevens comes close to maintaining a haiku-like meter, with many of the lines ranging between five and eight syllables. As a noble and free person, however, Stevens inevitably transgresses the haiku form, and the lines dip below or above the prescribed haiku meter, with many sections containing more than the traditional three lines of a haiku.

Stevens uses the lines to reinforce the jarring, haunting aspects of the poem. The poem features many enjambments (lines ending without punctuation or a natural pause), and they build suspense and break up the poem, similar to how modern life can fragment and scare a person.

Diction

Diction is a literary device where the poet spotlights themes, symbols, motifs, and so on through the words they use—their vocabulary. The inclusion of a forceful word like “barbaric” (Line 19) and the repetition of the creepy “shadow” (Lines 23, 46) emphasize the danger present in the world. The poem contains only two proper nouns—“Haddam” (Line 25) and “Connecticut” (Line 42)—and the lack of specific places and persons adds to the elusive nature of the poem. It’s as if the common nouns take over and topple the proper nouns. Through diction, Stevens destabilizes the hierarchies of the world. As his world is fluid, rigid power structures become vulnerable.

The diction also focuses on words that have to do with time and fluidity. Sometimes, the speaker talks in the present, like when he asks the Haddam men, “Do you not see how the blackbird / Walks around the feet / Of the women about you? (Lines 27-29). Other times, the speaker’s words refer to the past—thus, “the blackbird flew out of sight” (Line 35). Via words, the speaker can also scramble the past, present, and future, as in Section 13, when it “was snowing” and “it was going to snow” (Lines 51-52). The diction is elusive and mysterious, and to see, a person requires a fluid supply of words to document the world’s mystery.

Repetition

Repetition is a literary device where the poet repeats words or phrases to stress an idea. The primary repetition occurs with blackbirds, as either blackbirds or a blackbird appear exactly once in each of the 13 sections. The poem has a blackbird in the title, and the repetition of blackbirds reinforces their prominence. The repetition also reveals their elusiveness. Despite their regular appearance, they remain indecipherable. The speaker can look at them and watch them, but they can’t know them. They can’t stick with the blackbird or even say that the blackbird that’s “involved” (Line 33) in what the speaker knows is the same blackbird that marks the edge of “one of many circles” (Line 37). The repetition is subversive—familiarity doesn’t produce personal knowledge: The blackbird remains a mystery.

Through repetition, Stevens also pushes the playful aspect of the poem. He repeats “[a]re one” in Lines 10 and 12, but in both lines, there are two words, not one word. The repetition of “know” in Section 8 is playful as well, as the speaker uses the word three times, yet what the speaker knows remains vague. In Section 13, the speaker plays with time by including “was” in the first three lines. With repetition, Stevens introduces a bit of fun into all the confusion and mystery.