Stevens’s ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’
By Scott Horton
![[Image]](http://www.harpers.org/media/image/blogs/misc/van-gogh-wheatfield.jpg)
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections,
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
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.
VII
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?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass couch.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.
–Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird first published in: Harmonium (1923) in: Collected Poetry and Prose pp. 74-76 (Library of America ed. 1997)
Replies
Spooky...........the fact that you've connected with the RICHARDS and THOMPSON family(ies)...part of those who helped to DETHRONE Queen Liliuokalani in 1893!
The RICHARDS family started the SALVATION ARMY............one of them became the chauffeur of Queen Liliuokalani and he was with Dr. KATSUKI of the Maluhia Hospital and Killed one of the defenders of Queen Liliuokalani whose name was ABRAHAM KEKAI...........
Dr. KATSUKI appears to be the medical doctor who KILLED many Hawaiians at the Maluhia Hospital..... wicked, evil............
Your claim was that Queen Liliuokalani's "lover" was the chauffeur...........which means your claim was that the RICHARDS person was her lover................I don't think so...........
ABRAHAM KEKAI was a descendant of a brother of JOSHUA KAEO who was married to GINA LAHILAHI who was married to Kamehameha III - Kauikeouli.............
THOMPSON family are but part of the MASONS who claimed much of the alii families lands and they were merely ADOPTED people and NOT OF THE BLOOD.........
It's important for everyone to see that your ancestors benefitted off of the dark side, aside from being MISSIONARIES/MERCENARIES of the U.S.................best you locate the good ones who were on the side of Queen Liliuokalani...........it's sad that your Dad married into the JUDD families..............
but what the hell...........thanks for sharing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN38vED24Eg
I grew up here in Hawaii specifically in a Hawaiian community only. I wondered off because I wanted to see the world, but not for long.
One of my fascinations out there in the world was museums, second hand book stores, and antique collectible shops. I couldn't get enough of it and wondered the halls of museums on my travels, but I never left my own culture.
Blackbirds and deadness are regular themes across American museums which is embedded into American History. Another element of Americana is pirate and ships and swashbuckling..100 bottles of beer and the old dead mans chest...childrens stories.
Some children just don't grow up and take responsibility because of their childhood darkness!
Thanks for letting us know about the multiples of PIRATES interested in OUR HOME, OUR Hawaiian archipelago...............
and let your friends know that the Hawaiian Kingdom is here..............aloha.
p.s. this message applied to your other posts........
Note: did you ever notice that we live amongst PIRATES? and they are the "childhood darkness" of ALL OF US, our ANCESTORS too who supported Queen Liliuokalani from a neutral, non-violent, friendly nation.................
It's been fun looking at the things that they put in the Museums.............I remember being totally fascinated at the aluminum foil city and looked it over and over again awed over an artist's work versus looking at the diamonds, and elegant jewelry displayed in a Washington, D.C. Museum............and I went there because of a Scientific Symposium years ago..............with students and professors displaying their research...........we stayed in a luxury hotel and visited museums, natural history areas, etc...........and noticed the homeless, the angry homeless gathering bundles of cash making monies off of tourists, visitors and made more than $300 a day...................yes, PIRATES are all over the place.......in Washington, D.C. and even here at home.............and then the PIRATES Friends remains to be a story that will be told, for they too can be like PIRATES too......
YO HO, YO HO, YO HO HO>>>>>