Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XI
He rode over ConnecticutIn a glass coach.Once, a fear pierced him,In that he mistookThe shadow of his equipageFor blackbirds.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XI is in the public domain. This text is taken from Harmonium, Project Gutenberg ebook #78743; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XI, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird-xi.html, id L01083.
Form and metre
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XI is 6 lines in a single verse paragraph. It is unrhymed, as far as the pronouncing dictionary can tell. The lines average 5.5 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| He rode over Connecticut | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| In a glass coach. | 4 | ···· |
| Once, a fear pierced him, | 5 | ····· |
| In that he mistook | 5 | ···˘/ |
| The shadow of his equipage | 8 | ·/···/˘˘ |
| For blackbirds. | 3 | ·/˘ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.