Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XIII
It was evening all afternoon.It was snowingAnd it was going to snow.The blackbird satIn the cedar-limbs.
Words in this poem
- afternoon n.
- The part of the day which follows noon, between noon and evening.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XIII 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 XIII, in Harmonium (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #78743, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/stevens-harmonium/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird-xiii.html, id L01084.
Form and metre
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird XIII is 5 lines in a single stanza. The lines average 5.6 syllables. 1 line ends 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 |
|---|---|---|
| It was evening all afternoon. | 8 | ··/˘··˘/ |
| It was snowing | 4 | ··/˘ |
| And it was going to snow. | 7 | ···/˘·· |
| The blackbird sat | 4 | ·/˘· |
| In the cedar-limbs. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.