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The Plural Nature of Perception

Stevens announces the most central theme of “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” in the title, which implicitly references the plural nature of perception. There isn’t just one way of perceiving the world. Instead, every individual has their own distinct identity and point of view, which work together to shape their experience. In some cases, the possibility of plural perspective arises within individual stanzas. In stanza II, for instance, the speaker claims to be “of three minds, / Like a tree / In which there are three blackbirds” (lines 4–6). Stevens also evokes this fact on a formal level in the way he’s broken the poem into a series of disconnected stanzas. Each stanza functions as a short, self-contained poem that presents a slightly different view of the world. The main thing that unites these stanzas is their references to blackbirds. Yet only some of these references indicate actual blackbirds. In stanza XI, for example, the blackbirds are a mere figment of fancy: “he mistook / The shadow of his equipage / For blackbirds” (45–47). Stevens highlights how both the physical senses and the imagination inform perception, which gives rise to a wide range of perceptual possibilities.

The Commonness of Misperception

The notion that there are many ways to perceive the world doesn’t necessarily mean that all perceptions are equally valid or true. Instead, it means that perception is always partial. That is, every act of perception is always, to some degree, an act of misperception. Some stanzas in Stevens’s poem showcase misperception quite explicitly. In stanza XI, for instance, a man mistakes “the shadow of his equipage / For blackbirds” (lines 46–47). This act of misperception “pierced him” with a very real “fear” (line 44), even though the flock of blackbirds he “saw” were a mere figment of his imagination. Other stanzas explore the matter of misperception with more subtlety. In stanza VI (lines 18–24), for example, the speaker describes the enigmatic effect of perceiving a blackbird via its shadow:

         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.

The icicles that “filled the long window” obscure the speaker’s sight. The dark shadow of the blackbird that “crossed” the window is thus doubly obscured—doubly in shadow. Unable to perceive the blackbird clearly, the speaker experiences a mysterious “mood / Traced in the shadow / An indecipherable cause.” This mood doesn’t have a clear source, which blurs the distinction between what’s real and not.

The Interconnectedness of the Natural World

Another key theme in Stevens’s poem concerns the interconnectedness of the natural world. This, too, proves to be a matter of perception, and a challenging one at that, since the connections that underly the natural world aren’t necessarily visible to the naked eye. For this reason, an understanding of these connections can only arise through an esoteric form of logic. In stanza IV, for instance, the speaker claims that “a man and a woman and a blackbird / Are one” (lines 11–12). The speaker offers no further clarification or explanation; they simply assert an esoteric truth about the oneness that underlies each of these three human and nonhuman entities. The speaker invokes the language of logic later in the poem as well. In stanza XII (lines 48–49), they assert an implicit connection between a river’s flow and a blackbird’s flight:

         The river is moving.
         The blackbird must be flying.

The use of the modal verb construction “must be” in the second line implies a logical inference. That is, because the river is moving, it must be the case that the blackbird is flying. Once again, the speaker references the interconnectedness of the natural world using esoteric logic.

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