What discoveries or techniques did you find helpful through the process? What are two skills that you learnt and what is one area that you feel you work on to improve your skills?
- Looking at the picture at a distance
- Looking at the picture at a distance
- Heavy brush stroke and Light brush stroke
- Using a small, firm brush for blackbird (Also tried to contrast it with water to bring it out)
- Large strokes for an effect (distance)
- Short strokes for further distances
- Flicking the paintbrush for snow (This didn't work out as well as I wanted it to, because it created some very large snowballs) {I eventually went to a tiny brush and did dotting work)
Interpret the Poem
A literal interpretation of the poem would be that there is a blackbird that stands out somewhere, but it is also very small, as it is among many large mountains. The mountains are snowing, and it would keep snowing, however there is a large river that keeps flowing through the area. There are also other blackbirds that are flying around, with an ominous green glow around it. Stephens uses a blackbird and repeats it through the 13 verses to guide the reader through a process of self questioning and self reflection.
How you used certain elements or principles of design to describe the selected piece of poetry.
Shape - Many large mountains in the background behind the blackbird
Line - Horizontal lines for the river flowing across the poetry
Size - The blackbird is tiny compared to the entire background, however it CONTRASTS the background, bringing it out
Value- Dark background, and lighter sky and river
Contrast- Contrasting of mountains/tree/blackbird with sky, river, ground
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Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
By: Wallace Stevens
I Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbird.
II I was of three minds, Like a tree In which there are three blackbirds.
III The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds. It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV A man and a woman Are one. A man and a woman and a blackbird Are one.
V I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.
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.
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?
VIII I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.
IX When the blackbird flew out of sight, It marked the edge Of one of many circles.
X At the sight of blackbirds Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony Would cry out sharply.
XI He rode over Connecticut In a glass coach. Once, a fear pierced him, In that he mistook The shadow of his equipage For blackbirds.
XII The river is moving. The blackbird must be flying.
XIII It was evening all afternoon. It was snowing And it was going to snow. The blackbird sat In the cedar-limbs.
