Weiran Liu Assignment Three

In "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," Wallace Stevens manipulates incomplete imagery and specific diction choices that creates an inviting and inquisitive tone. This in effect establishes his message that we humans create our own reality, and that very literally, there are many ways of looking at one simple thing. Throughout the poem is one central thing- the blackbird - which the audience already has a preset image of in their minds. Stevens paints the blackbird differently in each of the 13 stanzas, connecting it to whistles in the autumn wind or lucid and crying sharply. However, all the stanzas contain imagery that is only the beginning of the description. It is a short segment, leaving the rest of the scene to the imagination of the reader, inviting them to think more about how a situation can be viewed and interpreted. His imagery - for example, "Flying in a green light, Even the bawds of euphony," (ll. 39-40) - is so stark that it almost shocks the reader. How does he see such a plain bird in so much detail? It brings the attention of the reader in to also try and look at an ordinary thing differently. Through his incomplete imagery and specific diction choices, Stevens is able to create an inviting and inquisitive tone that entices the reader to also take different views of the world.

"It doesn't make much difference how the pain is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement." --Jackson Pollock
I believe that art is an expression, for some it may be writing, for others it may be music. Either way, it is an outlet for an individual to project their inner thoughts or feelings. Pollock says that it does not matter how it is expressed, as long as it is. The technique that we characterize it as is simply a way we arrive at the expression. I believe that our characterizations of art are our categorizations of effective outlets of self expression, or ones that happen to be the most common. I think it is important for an artist to get something out of what they said or created. It is a "release" of the pain and helps that individual, whether it be a stress relief or even a source of income.