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Stevens’s poem has a contemplative yet disjointed tone. It’s contemplative in the sense that the speaker demonstrates a sustained consideration of different points of view. Reflecting on multiple perspectives requires deep thoughtfulness and a degree of tranquility. Just as they showcase thoughtfulness in their presentation of carefully composed images, they also evoke a sense of tranquility in their measured and often ordinary language. Yet despite having a contemplative quality, the poem is also highly disjunctive: each stanza presents a standalone vignette, each of which exhibits a different tone as the speaker makes abrupt shifts in subject matter and diction. Some stanzas are set in natural landscapes that evoke the serene minimalism of the Japanese haiku form. Stanza III (lines 7–8) offers an especially compressed image that tranquilly conjures the vast mystery of the natural world:

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

Other stanzas make use of more rarefied language and hence seem more intellectually refined. Consider the use of “euphony” (line 40) in stanza X, or of “equipage” (line 46) in stanza XI. Still other stanzas invoke an authoritative tone. Stanza VII, for example, recalls the language of the biblical Old Testament in its opening line: “O thin men of Haddam” (line 25).

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