The text of the poem is presented with my notes, which are specific to my class, and not intended to be considered as an explication or full interpretation of the poem.

1. What kind of a view of a
blackbird is this?
It is cinematic. aerial view of a town,
Think of a typical then focuses in on a
opening scene in a movie: One way of looking at a
house, then on a person
first you see a vast blackbird is to zoom in on
in a house, until the focus
expanse of land; the your subject, to focus on
is on the face of the
camera zooms in to an one tiny thing among a
person in the house.
great expanse.
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

2. Picture a tree with three
blackbirds in it; this is This way of looking at a
like your mind when you blackbird is to compare Not only can humans
juggle three different blackbirds in a tree to concentrate on a single
ideas, struggle to focus thoughts in a mind. point of focus in a vast
on one of several world, humans can also
competing thoughts. multi-task or have a
mind focused on more
than one idea.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds

3. There is a play without
words going on--a Subtle things that
pantomime. The happen on the edges
contribute to the story We don’t know what is
blackbird is whirling
of the whole. going on, just that a
around the action. blackbird is circling the
Though the blackbird is action and is somehow
on the edge, the blackbird connected to it, part of it
is included. from its position above.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

4. How are a man and a
woman one? They are This way of looking at a While one way of looking
both humans. blackbird may have you at humans and animals
rolling your eyes, but it finds a difference in KIND
How are a man and a actually asserts a strong bet ween the t wo,
woman and a blackbird opinion about the another way of looking
one? All three are living relationship bet ween asserts that the
beings. humans and animals. difference is merely one
of degree.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

5. Do I prefer the way the Do I prefer the way the
song sounds or what the meaning comes through Do I prefer the sound of
words and music the singer’s vocals or the the blackbird singing or
communicate? subtle meanings the feeling I get
suggested by the words? immediately after
hearing it. This way of
looking at a blackbird
concerns music, language,
and meaning.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

6. To whom does this MOOD ...or a blackbird flying
belong? To someone on past.
the indoors-side of that
window, some paranoid This is a very paranoid
person who assigns cause and superstitious way of
to coincidental looking...
happenings like icicles
forming on the window...
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.

7. Haddam is a town in What do they spend The thin men look at
Connecticut. It could be their time imagining? blackbirds as common.
any town. The men are Golden birds. What birds
thin--what do they need are they ignoring? The suggestion here is
to nourish them? Blackbirds. Golden birds that these men should
are not common. stop imagining ideal
Blackbirds are. women and get to know
the women around them.
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?

8. What are noble accents? This way of looking at a
Fancy ways of talking? blackbird suggests that
To me, this suggests that though the speaker
the speaker understands understands complex
has mastered higher language, he maintains a
learning without sense of connectedness
abandoning common to common language,
sense. maybe common sense.
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

9. This stanza creates a
visual of a point in space,
the blackbird, defining
the space, defining the
edge of one of many
circles. This is almost a
mathematical way of
looking at a blackbird.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles

10. This, however, is a very
emotional way of
looking: even jaded
prostitutes would
become enthusiastic
upon seeing the beautiful
sight of blackbirds flying
in a green light.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

11. HE is a wealthy man in a This is another paranoid
glass carriage whose way of looking.
money can’t buy him
peace of mind. He sees
the shadow of his own
carriage and thinks it is
some kind of swarm of
blackbirds on his trail.
XI
He rode over Conneticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

12. This way of looking at The action of a blackbird
blackbirds is as a flying is as natural to the This way of looking sees
constant: if the river is living world as breathing constant motion.
moving, the blackbird is is to the living human.
flying.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

13. This way of looking sees
stillness and sameness. This blackbird sitting in
the cedar limbs could be
the same one in the first
stanza, among the
t wenty snowy
mountains.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar limbs.

14. There are so many ways to read this poem, but the purpose it serves in this class is
to emphasize the point that there are many ways of looking at the same
subject. Diverse viewpoints on the same issue can be reasonably held.
Many factors influence our ways of looking. Our views are informed by our
backgrounds, by our degree of attention and curiosity, our level of education, our
personal experiences and beliefs, among many other factors.
For example, a person with a mathematical mind has a different way of looking
than a person with an analytical mind. One is not necessarily more valid than the
other.
The ability to look at a subject !om more than one angle of vision is a skill of higher
order thinking.