<P> "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is a poem from Wallace Stevens' first book of poetry, Harmonium . The poem consists of thirteen short, separate sections, each of which mentions blackbirds in some way . Although inspired by haiku, none of the sections meet the traditional definition of haiku . It was first published in October 1917 by Alfred Kreymborg in Others: An Anthology of the New Verse and two months later in the December issue of Others: A Magazine of the New Verse . </P> <P> "Thirteen Ways ..." may be interpreted as one of Stevens's exercises in perspectivism, and accordingly may be compared to such poems as "The Snow Man". The perspectives that matter for Stevens issue from the poet's imagination, which, somewhat in the spirit of philosophical nominalism, can unify the world in various ways--for example, as a man and a woman, or a man and a woman and a blackbird (section IV). The artist's perspective may be shaped by what he attends to, as for instance on inflections or innuendoes--the blackbird whistling, or just after (section V). </P>

When was thirteen ways of looking at a blackbird written