Introduction
The poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, written by the famous American modernist poet Wallace Stevens, was first published in the year 1917 in the magazine ‘Others’ and the anthology ‘Others: An Anthology of the New Verse’. It was later published in Harmonium in 1923. This poem highlights the subjective interpretation of the readers of a literary piece. The poem portrays Blackbird in multiple ways.
Central Idea
The main idea of the poem is that nature, human nature and the world can be interpreted and seen in multiple ways. The subjectivity in understanding a situation makes the meaning completely different for everyone. The Blackbird is used as a symbol to present thirteen different scenes. Everything gets changed, but the blackbird is common. It shows that nature and the world are such things that are omnipresent in every activity around human beings.
Themes
a) Role of Nature can't be eliminated - The role of nature is found in almost every activity of a human being. Humans can't remain in isolation completely. In the fourth stanza, the poet writes -
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
A man and a woman represent all humans, and a blackbird is for nature. A person can claim to have an immense amount of knowledge. But the truth is that his knowledge must have a role of nature. It can't be without nature. Hence, human beings can't be separated from nature.
b) Plurality of Perception - The poem presents that individuality and subjectivity change the meaning of an object or image. This world has billions of people, and the imaginative mind of everyone works in a different manner. This poem has multiple meanings of blackbird. The reader can interpret it in many ways. It can mean either nature, the materialistic world, human behavior, etc. The thirteen times occurrence of blackbird in the poem opened the world of subjectivity for the readers.
c) Human Behavior is influenced by surroundings - The poem highlights that human often acts in reaction to their surroundings. In stanza eleven, an inherent fear of the narrator awakens when he suddenly perceives a shadow of his own carriage. This shows that a normal thing around you, such as a shadow, may evoke wild emotions out of one. Similarly, when things are adverse, humans or even animals choose to wait and watch, as portrayed in stanza thirteen.Figure of Speech
a) Simile - In the second stanza, the three minds are compared to three blackbirds on a tree. It is a simile in which 'three' symbolises multiple choices and confusion in the thoughts. This confusion in mind is compared with the similarity one perceives in three identical blackbirds on a tree, and it becomes hard to recognize or differentiate them.
b) Anaphora - It was evening / It was snowing has repetition of 'It' at the start of lines. Hence, it’s a case of Anaphora.
c) Metaphor -' Golden Birds' is a metaphor for something unachievable, like an extremely beautiful woman or a surreal materialistic thing. The 'twenty snowy mountains' in the first stanza are like large hurdles in life.
d) Personification - 'Blackbird' is personified in the poem, such as 'Blackbird Whistling', 'Blackbird is walking', etc.
e) Assonance - 'is involved/in' has repetition of vowel sound /e/.
f) Alliteration - Blackbird 'whirled' in the autumn 'winds' has repetition of /v/ or /w/ consonant sound at the start of words. Hence, it is alliteration.Symbolism
The biggest symbol in the poem is ‘Blackbird’. It symbolises nature, the human world and many more things. The scope of individual interpretation in the poem, due to subjectivity, strengthens symbolism. Every stanza has symbols that strengthen the large symbol of the blackbird.
A Modern Poem
This poem reflects the typical modernist features. It is fragmented into thirteen parts, and they are juxtaposed as a poem. These thirteen parts, which are not interconnected as a literary piece, show disorientation and disturbance in the modern world. The inner consciousness that this poem calls helps in interpreting it in multiple ways. The modern world is fragmented by wars, races, color, and communities and breaking down into a new order. Similarly, this poem is fragmented into thirteen scenes to reflect the multiple worlds we are divided into.
Structure and Rhyme scheme
The poem has thirteen individual and detached stanzas, which are not related to each other. They are like thirteen different images. The poem doesn’t have any rhyme scheme or meter, hence it is written in free verse.
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