What the F*@^ Does This Poem Mean (poem 1)

{wallace stevens}

Back when I went to Saint John Fisher for a semester, which was... yikes, 2 years ago - i feel like a 44 year old reminiscing events 20 years back in some passive uncomfortable glee "Say, that had to be, gosh, 20 years back when we last were in Michigan, wow, was it really that long ago..?" I took a class, i mentioned before, called English Analysis. Most of the class was derived from short stories and novels with a small portion devoted to poetry. During this portion we broke off into groups and had to come up with our own analysis of a poem assigned to us. My group was assigned "Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird" By Wallace Stevens (buddy to e.e cummings). Unfortunately i don't have my original analysis, too bad, i remember we got a good grade even though we really struggled with the understanding of the poem, and our best ideas came when we were presenting to the class.

I would like to get your theory on the poem. Its pretty interesting to see what people think, since no one is "wrong," and how we each interpret the poem differently is quite fascinating. (I can't put the whole poem here, its too big, but I'll post a portion of it and you can find the rest here .) Hopefully the poem gets you thinking. A published analysis of the poem can be found here (DOWNLOADS PDF. FILE) by a David Lavery, collector of Steven's work, and is linked to the The Wallace Stevens Journal's website.

Thirteen Ways Of Looking At A Blackbird

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

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

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

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

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

VI
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.

-Wallace Stevens