13 Ways of Looking at 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Wallace Stevens : 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

I.
Long haikus about blackbirds

II.
A metaphor for racism

III.
False starts and fragments from an unfinished blackbird poem.

IV.
An outline for an epic poem about Woden travelling by train the East coast in winter.

V.
Premodern tweets.

VI.
A creative writing assignment from high school.

VII.
An elliptic, though devastating critique of Edgar A. Poe’s “The Raven”.

VIII.
13 failed pick-up lines.

IX.
His philosophical text expressing skepticism that the existence of the world requires the existence of a description that is true from every possible point of view, a description that would depict it in itself as it really is.

X.
A peyote fueled phantasmagoria.

XI.
Lyrics to his indie folk rap.

XII.
A spec screenplay for Groucho Marx.

XIII.
The Kuma Sutra of Connecticut.