"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" was written by one of America's most celebrated 20th century poets, Wallace Stevens. The poem was published in Stevens's classic debut collection, Harmonium (1923), and was described by the poet as thirteen different "sensations." These "sensations" are almost like short, individual poems, each of which references a blackbird in some way. As the poem's title suggests, these fragments feature different perspectives, with the bird taking on many disparate meanings as the poem unfolds. The poem is more about evoking certain feelings in the reader than in making any particular argument about birds. Overall, though, the poem does seem to suggest that reality is always a matter of perspective—that each person looks at and understands the world in their own way.

• Read the full text of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Summary

• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Themes

  • 

    Perspective and Reality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-3
    • Lines 4-6
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 9-12
    • Lines 13-17
    • Lines 18-24
    • Lines 25-29
    • Lines 30-34
    • Lines 35-37
    • Lines 38-41
    • Lines 42-47
    • Lines 48-49
    • Lines 50-54
  • 

    The Natural World

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-3
    • Lines 4-6
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 9-12
    • Lines 13-17
    • Lines 18-24
    • Lines 25-29
    • Lines 30-34
    • Lines 35-37
    • Lines 38-41
    • Lines 42-47
    • Lines 48-49
    • Lines 50-54

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

  • Lines 1-3

    Among twenty snowy ...
    ... of the blackbird.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-6

    I was of ...
    ... are three blackbirds.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-8

    The blackbird whirled ...
    ... of the pantomime.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-12

    A man and ...
    ... Are one.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-17

    I do not ...
    ... Or just after.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 18-24

    Icicles filled the ...
    ... An indecipherable cause.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-29

    O thin men ...
    ... women about you?

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 30-34

    I know noble ...
    ... what I know.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 35-37

    When the blackbird ...
    ... of many circles.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 38-41

    At the sight ...
    ... cry out sharply.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 42-47

    He rode over ...
    ... For blackbirds.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 48-49

    The river is ...
    ... must be flying.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 50-54

    It was evening ...
    ... In the cedar-limbs.

    

    

    

    

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• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “three”
    • Line 6: “there,” “three”
    • Line 7: “whirled,” “winds”
    • Line 8: “part,” “pantomime”
    • Line 13: “not know”
    • Line 14: “beauty”
    • Line 15: “beauty”
    • Line 16: “blackbird”
    • Line 18: “window”
    • Line 19: “With”
    • Line 28: “Walks”
    • Line 29: “women”
    • Line 36: “marked”
    • Line 37: “many”
    • Line 42: “Connecticut”
    • Line 43: “coach”
    • Line 51: “snowing”
    • Line 52: “snow”
    • Line 53: “sat”
    • Line 54: “cedar”

  • Apostrophe

    

    

    

    

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    Where apostrophe appears in the poem:

    • Lines 25-29: “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?”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “twenty snowy”
    • Line 2: “only moving thing”
    • Line 4: “three”
    • Line 5: “tree”
    • Line 6: “three”
    • Line 7: “blackbird whirled,” “in,” “winds.”
    • Line 9: “man,” “and,” “woman”
    • Line 10: “one”
    • Line 11: “man,” “and,” “woman,” “and”
    • Line 12: “one”
    • Line 14: “inflections”
    • Line 15: “innuendoes”
    • Line 16: “whistling”
    • Line 18: “Icicles filled,” “window”
    • Line 19: “barbaric glass.”
    • Line 20: “shadow,” “of”
    • Line 21: “Crossed,” “to,” “fro”
    • Line 22: “mood”
    • Line 23: “shadow”
    • Line 24: “cause”
    • Line 26: “do you,” “imagine golden”
    • Line 27: “Do you”
    • Line 30: “know noble”
    • Line 33: “is involved”
    • Line 34: “In”
    • Line 38: “sight”
    • Line 39: “Flying in,” “light”
    • Line 40: “euphony”
    • Line 41: “sharply”
    • Line 42: “rode over”
    • Line 43: “coach”
    • Line 44: “fear pierced”
    • Line 48: “river is moving”
    • Line 49: “flying”
    • Line 51: “snowing”
    • Line 52: “going,” “snow”
    • Line 53: “blackbird sat”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “Among twenty snowy mountains, / The only moving thing”
    • Line 3: “blackbird”
    • Line 6: “there,” “three blackbirds”
    • Line 7: “blackbird whirled,” “in,” “autumn winds”
    • Line 8: “small,” “part,” “pantomime”
    • Line 9: “man and,” “woman”
    • Line 10: “one”
    • Line 11: “man and,” “woman,” “ and,” “blackbird”
    • Line 12: “one”
    • Line 13: “not know”
    • Line 14: “beauty of inflections”
    • Line 15: “beauty of innuendoes”
    • Line 16: “blackbird whistling”
    • Line 17: “just after”
    • Line 18: “Icicles,” “ filled,” “long window”
    • Line 19: “barbaric glass”
    • Line 20: “shadow ,” “blackbird”
    • Line 21: “it,” “to and fro”
    • Line 22: “mood”
    • Line 23: “in”
    • Line 24: “An,” “indecipherable”
    • Line 25: “thin men”
    • Line 26: “ imagine golden birds”
    • Line 27: “blackbird”
    • Line 28: “Walks”
    • Line 29: “women”
    • Line 30: “know noble accents”
    • Line 31: “And lucid”
    • Line 33: “That the,” “blackbird,” “involved”
    • Line 34: “In,” “know”
    • Line 35: “blackbird,” “out,” “sight”
    • Line 36: “marked,” “ edge”
    • Line 37: “Of one of many,” “circles.”
    • Line 38: “At,” “sight,” “blackbirds”
    • Line 39: “in,” “green light”
    • Line 40: “Even,” “bawds,” “euphony”
    • Line 41: “Would”
    • Line 42: “Connecticut”
    • Line 43: “coach.”
    • Line 44: “Once,” “pierced”
    • Line 45: “mistook”
    • Line 46: “equipage”
    • Line 47: “blackbirds”
    • Line 48: “river,” “moving”
    • Line 49: “blackbird,” “flying”
    • Line 50: “evening,” “afternoon”
    • Line 51: “snowing”
    • Line 52: “going,” “snow”
    • Line 53: “blackbird sat”
    • Line 54: “cedar-limbs”

  • End-Stopped Line

    

    

    

    

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    Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “mountains,”
    • Line 3: “blackbird.”
    • Line 6: “blackbirds.”
    • Line 7: “winds.”
    • Line 8: “pantomime.”
    • Line 10: “one.”
    • Line 12: “one.”
    • Line 13: “prefer,”
    • Line 15: “innuendoes,”
    • Line 17: “after.”
    • Line 19: “glass.”
    • Line 21: “fro.”
    • Line 24: “cause.”
    • Line 25: “Haddam,”
    • Line 26: “birds?”
    • Line 29: “you?”
    • Line 31: “rhythms;”
    • Line 32: “too,”
    • Line 34: “know.”
    • Line 35: “sight,”
    • Line 37: “circles.”
    • Line 39: “light,”
    • Line 41: “sharply.”
    • Line 43: “coach.”
    • Line 44: “him,”
    • Line 47: “blackbirds.”
    • Line 48: “moving.”
    • Line 49: “flying.”
    • Line 50: “afternoon.”
    • Line 52: “s,” “now.”
    • Line 54: “cedar-limbs.”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “thing / Was”
    • Lines 5-6: “tree / In”
    • Lines 9-10: “woman / Are”
    • Lines 11-12: “blackbird / Are”
    • Lines 14-15: “inflections / Or”
    • Lines 16-17: “whistling / Or”
    • Lines 18-19: “window / With”
    • Lines 20-21: “blackbird / Crossed”
    • Lines 22-23: “mood / Traced”
    • Lines 23-24: “shadow / An”
    • Lines 30-31: “accents / And”
    • Lines 33-34: “involved / In”
    • Lines 36-37: “edge / Of”
    • Lines 38-39: “blackbirds / Flying”
    • Lines 40-41: “euphony / Would”
    • Lines 42-43: “Connecticut / In”
    • Lines 45-46: “mistook / The”
    • Lines 46-47: “equipage / For”
    • Lines 51-52: “snowing / And”
    • Lines 53-54: “sat / In”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 13-17: “I do not know which to prefer, / The beauty of inflections / Or the beauty of innuendoes, / The blackbird whistling / Or just after.”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 8: “It was a small part of the pantomime.”
    • Lines 18-19: “Icicles filled the long window / With barbaric glass.”
    • Line 44: “a fear pierced him”
    • Line 50: “It was evening all afternoon.”

  • Personification

    

    

    

    

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    Where personification appears in the poem:

    • Line 19: “barbaric glass”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “blackbird”
    • Line 4: “three”
    • Line 6: “three blackbirds”
    • Line 7: “blackbird”
    • Lines 9-12: “A man and a woman / Are one. / A man and a woman and a blackbird / Are one.”
    • Line 14: “The ,” “beauty of inflections”
    • Line 15: “Or the ,” “beauty of innuendoes”
    • Line 16: “The ,” “blackbird”
    • Line 17: “Or”
    • Line 20: “blackbird”
    • Line 27: “blackbird”
    • Line 30: “know”
    • Line 32: “know”
    • Line 33: “blackbird”
    • Line 34: “know”
    • Line 35: “blackbird”
    • Line 38: “blackbirds”
    • Line 47: “blackbirds”
    • Line 48: “The”
    • Line 49: “The,” “blackbird”
    • Line 50: “It was”
    • Line 51: “It was,” “snowing”
    • Line 52: “it was,” “snow”
    • Line 53: “blackbird”

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

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    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Lines 25-29: “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?”

• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Pantomime
  • Inflections
  • Innuendoes
  • Barbaric
  • To and Fro
  • Indecipherable
  • Lucid
  • Bawds
  • Euphony
  • Haddam
  • Equipage
  • Cedar-limbs
  • (Location in poem: Line 8: “pantomime”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Speaker

• “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

• More “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Bloom on Stevens — Audio of a fascinating lecture on Stevens by Harold Bloom, one of the most influential literary critics of the 20th century.   

    • The Thrilling Mind of Wallace Stevens — An interesting article about Stevens's life and work.   

    • A Reading of the Poem — Tom O'Bedlam reads "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird."

    • Birds and Poetry — A short but excellent selection of bird-related poems. 

    • The Blackbird's Song — A full meditative hour of blackbird singing.

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A bountiful resource from the Poetry Foundation, including podcasts, essays, and more poems.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Wallace Stevens

    • The Emperor of Ice-Cream

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