"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens (poetry reading)

[thissong4you]

"I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes..." What I like about abstract art is how it makes me feel. That is also what I like about this poem and your reading of it.

[testafresco]

there are ,of course, lots of people reading this on you tube

but your reading adds a depth to this poem

that i find superbly appropriate

[sheldonrampton]

I'm not sure what it means either, but I've always liked this poem. I think of it as an exploration of different feelings that that the concept of a blackbird can convey. In the first stanza, the small motion of the blackbird's eye accentuates the stillness and whiteness of the surrounding scene. In the second stanza, the blackbird is merely an arbitrary object to be counted. In the fourth, it provides an element of absurdity that humorously explodes a cliche about men and women. And so forth.

[spurcheck]

wonderful reading

[nwknwk]

I'm Chinese. It doesn't sound especially Chinese to me as we don't exactly have an ancient poetic form that has more than three stanzas, but I see your point- symbolism of abstract concepts, the oneness with nature.

I don't see it as pretentious. I see it as exploration of the concept that a physical object can represent many things at different moments. Fragments of memories, lost reels of film - not for narrative but for a state of mind.

[SpokenVerse]

@nwknwk For the record, I didn't say the poem was pretentious. A poem is a work of art which exists in its own right and doesn't have to mean anything, nor refer to anything outside itself.

[bunnycatch3r]

I don't know what the poem "means" but I'm stealing "bawds of euphony".

[red64419]

Sir, your talent in only second to your sense of humour.

Delighted....

[ArchhereticK]

Ambiguous art reflects ambiguous reality.

Of course this is a tool of lazy artists, but it's certainly not exclusive to them.