Wallace Stevens is not an easy poet to understand. His work is purposely twisted and tangled so one is forced to thing-whether they want to or not. Stevens’ poetry ranges from real life situations to situations which are simply a depiction of his imagination. One thing can be concluded though, Stevens does not allow his work to have a single meaning. Why should he? This is the upmost quality that makes his stand out from his competitors in the poetic industry. An interesting theme though which Wallace truly enjoys writing about, in all seriousness, is something thought provoking- perception. The book definition of perception is “appending [something] by the means of senses or the mind” . In his poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, Stevens offers multiple definitions of this single concept. It just depends on what the reader can decipher from thirteen parts consisting of short verses.
Initially, the poem appears to be about an observer forming a connection with a blackbird that he encounters many times. Then the reader realizes that the poem is by Stevens and something else must be going on- and they are correct. In order to see the entire picture, it is very important to look at the bits and pieces that create it. The meaning of each individual part, the setting, the usage of literary devices such as distinct symbolism, and versatile thematic messages are all very important in creating a clear understanding. The path has been laid out, now it is time to shred this work into pieces!
What would be a better place to begin than the first part of the poem? Here, an observer- who is actually the speaker of the poem which part two shares with the readers- watches the “eye of the blackbird” move and peer in...
... middle of paper ...
...=t>.
Ingram, Courtney. "The Process of Perception." Capstone Project. eFolio Minnesota, n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013. .
Tuner, Michele. "Pantomime." Dictionary.com. Lexico, 1995. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.
< http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pantomime?s=t>.
Chapman, Jeremy. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird : An Analysis."Jeremy Chapman : Montreal Linux Computer Consultant. Drupal, n.d. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
"Common Blackbird." Wikipedia Encyclopedia. Wikimedia, 18 Feb. 2003. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
Stevens, Wallace. "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." 1917. The Palm at
the End of the Mind. Ed. Holly Stevens. New York: Vintage Books, 1990.
20-22. Print.
"Perception - Definition of Perception by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia." Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
Annie Dillard portrays her thoughts differently in her passage, incorporating a poetic sense that is carried through out the entire passage. Dillard describes the birds she is viewing as “transparent” and that they seem to be “whirling like smoke”. Already one could identify that Dillard’s passage has more of poetic feel over a scientific feel. This poetic feeling carries through the entire passage, displaying Dillard’s total awe of these birds. She also incorporates word choices such as “unravel” and that he birds seem to be “lengthening in curves” like a “loosened skein”. Dillard’s word choice implies that he is incorporating a theme of sewing. As she describes these birds she seems to be in awe and by using a comparison of sewing she is reaching deeper inside herself to create her emotions at the time.
The first two lines of the poem set the mood of fear and gloom which is constant throughout the remainder of the poem. The word choice of "black" to describe the speaker's face can convey several messages (502). The most obvious meaning ...
In his poem “The Great Scarf of Birds”, John Updike uses a flock of birds to show that man can be uplifted by observing nature. Updike’s conclusion is lead up to with the beauty of autumn and what a binding spell it has on the two men playing golf. In Updike’s conclusion and throughout the poem, he uses metaphors, similes, and diction to show how nature mesmerizes humans.
----. "On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz." Shadow and Act. Ralph Ellison. New York: Vintage Books, 1972, 221-232.
The tile of the poem “Bird” is simple and leads the reader smoothly into the body of the poem, which is contained in a single stanza of twenty lines. Laux immediately begins to describe a red-breasted bird trying to break into her home. She writes, “She tests a low branch, violet blossoms/swaying beside her” and it is interesting to note that Laux refers to the bird as being female (Laux 212). This is the first clue that the bird is a symbol for someone, or a group of people (women). The use of a bird in poetry often signifies freedom, and Laux’s use of the female bird implies female freedom and independence. She follows with an interesting image of the bird’s “beak and breast/held back, claws raking at the pan” and this conjures a mental picture of a bird who is flying not head first into a window, but almost holding herself back even as she flies forward (Laux 212). This makes the bird seem stubborn, and follows with the theme of the independent female.
To that end, the overall structure of the poem has relied heavily on both enjambment and juxtaposition to establish and maintain the contrast. At first read, the impact of enjambment is easily lost, but upon closer inspection, the significant created through each interruption becomes evident. Notably, every usage of enjambment, which occurs at the end of nearly every line, emphasizes an idea, whether it be the person at fault for “your / mistakes” (1-2) or the truth that “the world / doesn’t need” (2-3) a poet’s misery. Another instance of enjambment serves to transition the poem’s focus from the first poet to the thrush, emphasizing how, even as the poet “[drips] with despair all afternoon,” the thrush, “still, / on a green branch… [sings] / of the perfect, stone-hard beauty of everything” (14-18). In this case, the effect created by the enjambment of “still” emphasizes the juxtaposition of the two scenes. The desired effect, of course, is to depict the songbird as the better of the two, and, to that end, the structure fulfills its purpose
Home, the one place where one can always head back to, is nonexistent in the poem, and it is an essential part of living. One can analyze the meaning when he or she understands what he is conveying while he watches the chicken hawk “looking for home.” Wright also takes the time to mention the "empty house," leading to the question why is the house empty? It is unusual for houses to not contain anything internally such as furniture; the adjective "empty" can be seen as describing his life. He relates himself to the chicken hawk, but not only does he not possess a home, he is alone. At times in the poem, moments are present where he describes several of the images in the singular tense while the rest is plural. “The bronze butterfly” and “blowing like a leaf” both hint of his loneliness compared to the other moments such as “the cowbells” and the “two pines.” Being alone is a fear humans have, and in this case, he is by
I thought of the reading as just another environmental writing trying to bring light to extinction of a species of bird. Then once I sat down a few nights ago I read the passage and I started to tear up reading about these poor birds brutally hunted. I started to feel the same emotions as Stratton-Porter did when she saw the bag of birds at her neighbor’s house. What really shocked me about how these birds went extinct. No one else saw them as Stratton-Porters father did, biblically. Her father told the other men in their neighborhood about how killing off the quails were bad for farming. Stratton-Porter states, “These things he studied out and began to pass along to his neighbors, even to put in his sermons that he preached in the pulpit” (196). Towards the end, I really enjoyed with how Stratton-Porter saw the wild pigeon after they were thought to be extinct, with a price for its capture and had no desire to disturb the bird. Stratton-Porter states, “So here I was looking with all my soul at one specimen of a bird bearing on its head a price ranging from one hundred up, with no way and no desire to capture it” (204). The very last part of this piece blew me away by the emotion wave I got feeling the bird voicing his thoughts. With the extinction of the passenger pigeon, there has been conservation movements to protect the wildlife and there habitat from
He is almost sleeping while doing this. This creates a very powerful visual image. It epitomizes how the people left to grieve act. Many people stricken by death want to be left alone and bottle themselves up. The first few lines of the poem illustrate how deeply in sorrow the man is. This image should affect everyone. It should make the reader sympathize or even empathize with the man. Another main way he uses imagery is through the black bird or the raven. The presence of the bird is a bad omen. It is supposed to be followed by maleficent things. The bird is used to symbolize death figuratively and literally. The bird only says one word the entire poem. It repeats “nevermore.” This word can be interpreted multiple ways each time it is said. It is also possible that the bird is not talking. It is possible that the bird is an image created by
Before addressing any of Stevens’ poems, it must be made clear that this argument is narrowly focusing itself on the visual images within several of Stevens’ poems. To fully examine the sidelines and tangents of a single poem would be impossible, as the poems themselves grow with discovered philosophies, and appeal to innumerable viewpoints and interpretations. Furthermore, because the word image can have a multiplicity of meanings and derivatives, depending on the school of thought the reader has absorbed, I will constrain the definition of image, within this paper, to the stoic “To describe; especially to describe as to call up a mental picture of” (Morris, 657).
It is relatively easy to see the repression of blacks by whites in the way in which the little black boy speaks and conveys his thoughts. These racial thoughts almost immediately begin the poem, with the little black boy expressing that he is black as if bereaved of light, and the little English child is as white as an angel. The wonderful part of these verses is the fact that the little black boy knows that his soul is white, illustrating that he knows about God and His love.
Both poets present readers with characters questioning the apparent transience of nature. Whitman's young girl weeps to see the black "burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all," (line 12) just as Stevens' young woman is saddened "when the birds are gone, and their warm fields/Return no more" (lines 49-50). These characters, unable to grasp the entirely of the cycle of mortality, are dismayed by earthly loss they continually observe.
bird as the metaphor of the poem to get the message of the poem across
“A Bird came down the Walk,” was written in c. 1862 by Emily Dickinson, who was born in 1830 and died in 1886. This easy to understand and timeless poem provides readers with an understanding of the author’s appreciation for nature. Although the poem continues to be read over one hundred years after it was written, there is little sense of the time period within which it was composed. The title and first line, “A Bird came down the Walk,” describes a common familiar observation, but even more so, it demonstrates how its author’s creative ability and artistic use of words are able to transform this everyday event into a picture that results in an awareness of how the beauty in nature can be found in simple observations. In a step like narrative, the poet illustrates the direct relationship between nature and humans. The verse consists of five stanzas that can be broken up into two sections. In the first section, the bird is eating a worm, takes notice of a human in close proximity and essentially becomes frightened. These three stanzas can easily be swapped around because they, for all intents and purposes, describe three events that are able to occur in any order. Dickinson uses these first three stanzas to establish the tone; the tone is established from the poet’s literal description and her interpretive expression of the bird’s actions. The second section describes the narrator feeding the bird some crumbs, the bird’s response and its departure, which Dickinson uses to elaborately illustrate the bird’s immediate escape. The last two stanzas demonstrate the effect of human interaction on nature and more specifically, this little bird, so these stanzas must remain in the specific order they are presented. Whereas most ...