Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

First

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

Second

I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

Third

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

Fourth

A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

Fifth

I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

Sixth

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.

Seventh

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?

Eighth

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

Ninth

When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

Tenth

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

Eleventh

He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

Twelfth

The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

Thirteenth

It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.