Crow

A black bird ranging in size depending on the country. The crow is often confused for the blackbird but they are actually two distinct birds. The crow is known for survival, as it eats anything from earthworms to carrion (dead animals), while the blackbird is a songbird. This is especially important to point out considering Stevens’s famous poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” Due to their carrion feeding, crows are often associated with death, the occult, and winter. A collective of crows is referred to as a “flock” or “murder.” Crows as a species show great intelligence. In mythology, crows are connected to the Celtic goddess Morrigan, Bran the Blessed (Game of Thrones connection, anyone?), and Odin as his messengers. In most religions, crows carry special significance (messengers, communing with the dead, revelations, or tricksters).
==Poems:==
“Like Decorations in a Nigger Cemetery,” line 84: “From oriole to crow, note the decline” and line 85, “In music. Crow is realist. But, then,”
“The Man on the Dump” line 39: “To a crow’s voice? Did the nightingale torture the ear,”
“Variations on a Summer Day” line 28: “The crow, inciting various modes”
“Montrachet-le-Jardin” line 82: “Item: The cocks crow and the birds cry and
“No Possum, No Sop, No Taters” line 21: “The crow looks rusty as he rises up.”
“Esthetique du Mal” line 18: “No pain (ignoring the cocks that crow us up”
“I have lived so long with the rhetoricians” line 4: “Or hear a crapulous crow”
Owl’s Clover, Sombre Figuration line 821: “The statue in a crow’s perspective of tree”
==References:==
George Lensing’s Wallace Stevens and the Seasons (Lensing includes several explanations about Stevens’s crows)
Blog about Stevens’s poetry called “The Dao of Wallace Stevens”
[http:// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crow Crow]