Some Bird Songs

Thirteen Ways of Looking        at a BlackbirdWallace Stevens

IAmong twenty snowy mountains,The only moving thingWas the eye of the blackbird.


III was of three minds,Like a treeIn which there are three blackbirds.
IIIThe blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.It was a small part of the pantomime.
IVA man and a womanAre one.A man and a woman and a blackbirdAre one.


VI do not know which to prefer,The beauty of inflectionsOr the beauty of innuendoes,The blackbird whistlingOr just after.
VIIcicles filled the long windowWith barbaric glass.The shadow of the blackbirdCrossed it, to and fro.The moodTraced in the shadowAn indecipherable cause.


VIIO thin men of Haddam,Why do you imagine golden birds?Do you not see how the blackbirdWalks around the feetOf the women about you?
VIIII know noble accentsAnd lucid, inescapable rhythms;But I know, too,That the blackbird is involvedIn what I know.


IXWhen the blackbird flew out of sight,It marked the edgeOf one of many circles.
XAt the sight of blackbirdsFlying in a green light,Even the bawds of euphonyWould cry out sharply.


XIHe rode over ConnecticutIn a glass coach.Once, a fear pierced him,In that he mistookThe shadow of his equipageFor blackbirds.
XIIThe river is moving.The blackbird must be flying.


XIIIIt was evening all afternoon.It was snowingAnd it was going to snow.The blackbird satIn the cedar-limbs.




Bird Music Transcribed in SyllablesGilbert H. Trafton
Red-winged blackbird: kong-quer-ree, or o-ka-lee, or gug-lug-lee.Maryland yellow-throat: witchity, witchity.Flicker: wick, wick, wick.Nuthatch: quank, quank, quank.Oven-bird: teacher, teacher, teacher.





A Bird Came Down the WalkEmily Dickinson
A Bird came down the Walk--He did not know I saw--He bit an Angleworm in halvesAnd ate the fellow, raw,
And then he drank a DewFrom a convenient Grass--And then hopped sidewise to the WallTo let a Beetle pass--
He glanced with rapid eyesThat hurried all around--They looked like frightened Beads, I thought--He stirred his Velvet Head
Like one in danger, Cautious,I offered him a CrumbAnd he unrolled his feathersAnd rowed him softer home--
Than Oars divide the Ocean,Too silver for a seam--Or Butterflies, off Banks of NoonLeap, plashless as they swim.