Red Rose, Black, Words and Music By Brian McCaskill

Words and Music by Brian McCaskil

Brian McCaskill and Vincent Wice

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13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens Steven Wallace’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” is an exceptional poem in many aspects. Using it’s thirteen different stanzas, the poem provides the reader with a varied look at a blackbird, while still keeping a main theme throughout. The piece deals with a number of topics including fear, the omniscient nature of the blackbird as the poet sees it, and the way the blackbird represents time. Indeed, the blackbird becomes a symbol for a large number of different emotions and aspects of out lives. The poem starts with the scene of “twenty snowy mountains” (1). It sets the poem in nature and allows the reader to see a broad mountain range, and it gives the first stanza a large landscape to work. However, the scene gets focused as the poem centers into the only movement in the scene, the blackbird’s eye. Within the first stanza of a poem, the reader is already taken from an overwhelming scene of a large, cold mountain range to the center of the bird’s eye. This establishes the blackbird as having an almost God-like control over the mountain range and those observing it. The idea of the blackbird having dominion over it’s world continues throughout the poem. In the twelveth stanza Stevens writes, “The river must be moving. / The blackbird must be flying.” (48-49). The river is often a symbol of time, and more specifically the river’s movement represents the movement of time. In this sense, the blackbird is shown as being above time, as if the bird is flying over not only the physical world, but also the universe and the principals the govern it. Again, the poem gives the bird an omniscient presence. In the last stanza of the poem, the author takes the reader back to a wintery scene. Stevens writes, “It was evening all afternoon. / It was snowing / And it was going to snow.” (50-52). The refernce to it being “evening all afternoon” gives the day a specific feel. As if to reinforce the coldness of the snow, the fact that the afternoon was also the evening makes the reader imagine the day in this stanza as being dark and cold. In the scene the snow has fallen and will continue to snow. Similarly to the first stanza, after the snow is described, the poem focuses on the blackbird. But, instead of focusing on it’s movement, the poem now focuses on it’s stillness in the cedar-limbs. This stillness can represent the passing of time, and cedar is a traditional symbol of longevity and growing old. Again, the blackbird is given a God-like presence, this time by his ability to withstand the passing of time and take on an infinite quality. The bird is given similar description in the second stanza, where Stevens writes, “I was of three minds, / Like a tree / In which there are three blackbirds.” (4-6). This stanza equates the blackbird to the human mind, and in that way compares it to wisdom. Because the birds are situated in a tree, one can get the impression of an owl, which is a classic symbol for wisdom. Also, since the birds are sitting in the tree, instead of flying through the forest, it presents the reader with a sense of stillness, much like the blackbird in the cedar tree in the last stanza. In another sense, the mind can be equaled with time, thus making a connection between the second stanza and the last stanza. The fourth stanza of the poem also presents the bird as an all-knowing entity. It reads, “A man and a woman / Are one. / A man and a woman and a blackbird / Are one.” (9-12). This stanza seems to suggest that the black bird is situated in our lives in a way that often goes unnoticed. Essestially, the lines say that a blackbird does not add to image of a man and a woman, nor does it take away from it. Instead, the blackbird takes on an almost spiritual sense, as if the man and woman cannot see the bird, but it is always there. Giving the blackbird a spiritual sense adds to its mystery, and, with the last stanza, also adds to its relationship with time. The eighth stanza also presents the blackbird as a figure that is involved with everything the mind knows. Stevens writes, “I know noble accents / And lucid, inescapable rhythms; / But I know, too, / That the blackbird is involved / In what I know.” (32-34). These “noble accents” in the poem can suggest many different thoughts, but it is clear that they are important and that the poet has some sort of pride in them. Also, the “lucid, inescapable rhythms” seem to suggest that, along with knowledge, the poet possess some common sense of the world. This is suggested by the “inescapable” aspect of the thoughts, as if to say without these “rythyms” one cannot learn the “noble accents”, though they seem to be almost opposite schools of thought. However, the blackbird seems to be central in both of these thoughts, pushing further the idea that the bird is all-knowing and everywhere. Perhaps this omniscientness is an essential reason why the creature chosen in the poem is a bird. By flying over our heads, they seem to get a all-encompassing view of the world, being able to see and know everything. This line of reasoning also explains to us the first stanza of the poem. The blackbird’s eye is the what he uses to see everything, and it’s why he is the all-knowing presence in the poem. Another aspect of the bird that cannot be ignored is it’s color. Black has been a color associated with bad luck and fear. In the sixth stanza, Stevens writes, “Icicles filled the long window / With barbaric glass. / The shadow of the blackbird / Crossed it, to and fro.” (18-21). The blackbird is no doubt being disguised by the shadows, allowing the light to show us his shadow, but not him. Later, the stanza mentions “An indecipherable cause.” (24). This “cause” continues to build a mystery in this stanza and the in poem at large. The poem never gives us a definite answer as to what the blackbird is doing in the shadows, but this may further show the blackbird’s supernatural presence. The blackbird knows it’s reasons, and the reader cannot know the blackbird’s reasons because he is not all-knowing. In this way, Stevens makes sure that the reader stays in place, and knows the power of the blackbird. The shadows of the blackbird come back in the eleventh stanza, which reads: He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds. (42-47) In this stanza, unlike the the sixth stanza, the darkness in only thought to be the blackbird, but is really just the shadow of the rider’s coach. The fact that the man feared the shadows he thought to be blackbirds gives the blackbirds a power to induce paranoia and fear. This kind of respect the blackbird is given is of no surprise, because the poem had already established the blackbird as being a kind of deity. The respect of the blackbird is also shown in the tenth stanza, which reads, “At the sight of blackbirds / Flying in a green light, / Even the bawds of euphony / Would cry out sharply.” (38-41). However, in this stanza, the cries does not seem to be cries of fear. The crying bawds are said to be “of euphony”, so their cries would have to be cries of a pleasing sense. Perhaps the cries were made out of pure respect and admiration for the blackbird, instead of fear. The “green light” that the bird is flying into may also have an impact on the cry. Green is a symbol for many things, including nature, or the natural world. The bird flying towards this light could be seen as the bird returning to nature, and in a larger sense, returning to the world. The blackbird flying towards nature evokes a sense of the blackbird making it’s way through worlds. In the ninth stanza, Stevens writes, “When the blackbird flew out of sight, / It marked the edge / Of many circles.” (35-37). There can be many circles in the world, figurative and realistic. The “circle of life” is a common phrase when describing people being born and people dying, and more generally be related to almost all of life’s circumstances. A “circle of friends” is a common saying, describing a certain social group, and the “family circle” works in much the same way. In the visualizing the poem, one might get a circle of sight in which to see the blackbird, and if the bird is flying away it might continue closer and closer to the edge of sight, until it finally disappears. It is important to look at all of these examples while examining this stanza. When the bird flies out of the poem’s sight, it could also be flying out of a certain world, and the bird could be entering a whole new “circle of life”. The bird having the ability to cross worlds, as it’s shadow crossed a window, helps the idea of the bird being God-like, and presents the poem with a flowing feel, as if the blackbird is flying through the poem and across the stanzas. Using the image of the blackbird flowing freely throughout the world and the poem, one can get a different meaning out of a number of stanzas. In the third stanza, Stevens write’s, “The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. / It was a small part of the pantomime.” (7-8). In this scene, the blackbird does not seem to be a deity at all. Rather, the bird seems to be involved in the world around it the same way as everything else, and makes up part of the scene. The bird also takes on this stealth quality in the seventh stanza: O thin men of Haddam, Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird Walks around the feet Of the women about you? (25-29) In this stanza, the men do not even recognize the blackbird as it takes on the rather meger position of walking at the feet of women. This stanza makes a clear statement that the blackbird is one of the “golden birds” that the men imagine. In a sense, the blackbird is no a fantasy, but a reality. These men, however, are too enthralled with allusions of grandeur to see the simplicity of the bird. And along with that simplicity comes knowledge, though it might not be as beautiful or as charming as the “golden birds”.