Looking At A Blackbird Dualism

“Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” - Binaries and Deconstruction Blackbirds, with their sleek dark feathers and foreboding caws, are symbols in some cultures for the unknown and darkness. In the Wallace Stevens’, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”, the blackbird is a freestanding sign that is unaffected by the restraints of the binaries woven throughout the poem. Stevens utilizes many different aspects of dualistic divisions in order to demonstrate the deconstructive narrative of the different metaphoric attributes of the blackbird and scenery surrounding it. The poem addresses the dichotomy of the number thirteen, dualism of light and dark, commentary of the human psyche and condition, and the opposition of life and death are

The poem opens with, “in twenty snowy mountains, the only thing moving thing was the eye of the blackbird.” Through this passage, we can infer that the blackbird itself is soaring above the snowy mountains. An abstract vision of the layers between the black and white is created. The “blackbird” is a stark contrast in color with the “snowy mountains”, which are white, solid, and vast while the“blackbird” is black, moving, and small. However, the blackbird separates from the mountains and even from itself, with the “only moving thing was the eye of the blackbird.” The blackbird in this section symbolizes nature with the words, “only moving thing.” This simple phrase highlights the continuity of nature, how even in a seemingly timeless setting, the blackbird is still a singularity representing the abstract of time.The center of the poem shifts from the blackbird to the mountains which erodes from the original binary of light versus dark. Instead, Stevens draws us to the binary of nature versus culture. Indicating how nature is elevated above culture, the “light” or “white” mountains conceal hidden dangers of the snow, flipping the innocence to something darker indicative of culture suppressing individuals, while the blackbird is the epitome of nature, is reflective of the natural form of the world. In attempt to bring meaning into the chaos, Stevens displays through the next few stanzas the chaos of the human condition and how the blackbirds’ symbolism of nature soars above