Final answer:
In Wallace Stevens' poem 'Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird', time is portrayed as a fragmented experience, evidenced by stanzas presenting different moments with the blackbird and the use of this motif to reflect time's disjointed nature.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, time is incorporated into the theme as a fragmented experience. This can be seen through the poem's structure where each stanza offers a different perspective or moment in time related to the blackbird, with no clear linear progression. Instead, the stanzas present snapshots that are loosely connected, reflecting the way memory and observation can fragment time rather than depict it as uniform or cyclical.
The poem's theme of time can also be seen through its motifs. The blackbird itself is a recurring element that manifests in varied environments and actions, which can be interpreted as different moments in time. These motifs underscore time's fragmented nature in the poem, similar to the ways a park might be used to represent a character's childhood in a different story, showing how motifs suggest theme through repetition and symbolism. Similarly, just as a park might be replaced by a housing complex to symbolize a transition, the various stanzas of Stevens' poem suggest changes and transitions in time and perception.