I Read it But Don't Get it ACCESS ACTIVITY

By Anna Papst

Tips for Reading a Poem pg. 122

1.   Read the poem all the way through, twice.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

 

 

2.   Think about any background knowledge that you have that will help you connect to the people, animals or objects in the poem.

I love the song “Blackbird”. I lived on a farm and we had blackbirds flying around all the time. If you picture mountains in your head that are all white, the blackbird will stick out. The bird flies around and can be anywhere at any time. In the movie “Mary Poppins”, I always picture the birds that are around the bird woman’s feet to be blackbirds. Also the funny birds in “Dumbo” are all blackbirds.

 

3.   Try to make a picture in your head about what’s happening in the poem.

 

“Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

 

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

 

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds,

It was a small part of the pantomime.

 

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

 

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendos,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

 

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

 

O thin med of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

 

I know noble accents

And lucid, inescapable rhythms;

But I know, too,

That the blackbird is involved

In what I know.

 

When the blackbird flew out of sight,

It marked the edge

Of one of many circles.

 

At the sight of blackbirds

Flying in a green light,

Even the bawds of euphony

Would cry out sharply.

 

He rode over Connecticut

In a glass coach,

Once, a fear pierced him,

In that he mistook

The shadow of his equipage

For blackbirds.

 

The river is moving.

The blackbird must be flying.

 

It was evening all afternoon.

It was snowing

And it was going to snow.

The blackbird sat

In the cedar-limbs.”

 

4.   What do you think this poem is about?

 

The poem has to do with all aspects of how the blackbird is viewed. Each stanza has to do with another viewpoint that blackbirds have. Blackbirds have always been kind of mystery birds. Songs have been written about them, witches in movies always have them, and so they set off a vibe that I think Wallace Stevens wanted to encompass but also bring light to their other sides.

 

TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

 

“It was a small part of the pantomime”

·         As you watch the blackbird, it is putting on a show in a matter of speaking because of the graceful flying and the black coloring that would make it look like it is a part of a pantomime.

 

“Why do you imagine golden birds? Do you not see how the blackbird walks around the feet of the women around you?”

·         Blackbirds can be seen as romantic birds. They are gracing the feet of women and so men should pick up on this tip.

 

“Even the bawds of euphony would cry out sharply”

·         Even the sweet sound of the women in brothels would cry out so sharply and be filled with fear.

“The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying”

·         When the river is moving then the blackbird is around and nearby. I think that this poem is definitely the wonderings of Wallace Stevens and his creativity about blackbirds. Maybe he has always been curious about them and why they are a popular bird for songs and for scary happenings.