Response to Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Write a blog post that discusses any of the poems from the poetry packet. Be specific, use examples, explain your points and be thoughtful in your response. (3-5 thoughtful and comprehensive paragraphs.)

     Wallace Stevens' Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird stood out to me because of the likeness to traditional Japanese poetry, of which I am a fan.  A collection of 13 short poems, each verse is comprised of strong natural imagery, seemingly abstract thoughts and the mention of a blackbird.  It is my interpretation the Stevens is not literally writing about blackbirds, but using them metaphorically in various meanings.
     Verse I, "Among twenty snowy mountains,/ The only moving thing/ Was the eye of the blackbird." is my favorite of all thirteen, even if I don't fully grasp his meaning.  Stevens' starts off with a vast, bleak, and what I assume to be barron landscape of huge, white mountains and he focuses in on a tiny, living eye.  An eye, not even the entire blackbird but it's eye.  A small part of a small being among a giant scene.
     In verse II, Stevens' writes "I was of three minds,/ Like a tree/ In which there are three blackbirds.".  Here, I think he is using the blackbirds to mirror man's trio of mind, body, and soul.  He could also possibly mean the id, ego, and superego.  In any case, he is describing three birds to one tree, three parts to one mind.
     In verse IV he states "A man and a woman/ Are one./ A man and a woman and a blackbird/ Are one.".  First he refers to the two human forms, male and female, and unifies them as one.  He adds a blackbird but still, they are one.  How can a blackbird unify with man?  They are both alive.  Perhaps Stevens' is saying that all life has value, that all life is unified.
     Stevens' starts his poem off in winter.  In verse III, he references autumn.  In verse X he mentions green light, possibly spring air or a summer storm.  In verse XII he says "The river is moving." which makes me believe the weather is warm.  By verse XIII he writes that it is snowing.  This poem goes in a full circle of seasons, possibly representing the life cycle or something else cyclical.
     I think this poem was written about a lot of things, taking life for granted or overlooking the beauty in simplicity, to name a couple.  However, since Stevens' is notoriously ambiguous and writes with the intent of provoking the reader, the entire meaning is not yet clear to me.
   

A brief(ish) introduction

I'm Diana and this is my first semester at Eastern.  I grew up on the South side of Chicago and moved to Japan after graduating high school in 2004.  I spent the bulk of the years since traveling Asia, as well as the US, for my job.  During some of that time I completed my first few years of microbiology prerequisites through correspondance while trying to figure out which direction of science or medecine to pursue as a career.  In July of last year, my boyfriend and I made a big move from Shanghai to Ann Arbor when he was accepted to one of UMich's graduate programs.  I had been wanting to return to school for some time so I seized the opportunity when it presented itself and wound up here.  Although I started school with aspirations of becoming a clinical microbiologist, I have ultimately decided that career wise I want to be involved with a more hands-on practice.  Viruses and bacteria will forever remain my nerdy obsessions, but I have chosen to pursue occupational therapy.  I give myself no other option that to get into UIC's OT graduate program next year so I dedicate nearly every waking second to schoolwork and my volunteer hours.

In the spare time that I have increasingly less of, I travel- small trips, big trips, anywhere and everywhere!  I am absolutely fascinated by languages, cultures, cuisines, and experiencing life outside of the one I was born into.  I also enjoy writing (though I hope most of it never sees the light of day), reading (mostly fiction), learning new words, baking things to stress eat later, yoga, and spending time with my boyfriend Marc and our cats B and Cricket.   :)

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