Wallace Stevens - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.

II I imagined the blackbird Whistling yum.

III The blackbird whistled With his eye towards the skies And I leaned drinking the dark That tilted stars forever.

IV A man and a woman Are one.

V I do not know what it is To wander.

VI The only blackbird, Song in the distance, broadcasts a stillness That drifts among the trees.

VII Content with his lullabies, He leaves.

VIII I saw the blackbird Beneath the hidden throats Of sung-out light.

IX The blackbird has two wings, One from the left The other from the right

X And thus it communicates, Flicking its body around.

XI The eye of the blackbird Was the only moving thing, Versatile above the snowy mountains, With no concern for cries or longing.

XII Two blackbirds settled On a woman’s breast

XIII And the very same blackbirds Wings cross yards.