Mary Oliver Quotes

Who the fuck is coco?

opening sentence

Mary Oliver’s poetry blends close attention to the natural world with spiritual reflection, using images of animals, landscapes, and ordinary encounters to explore the interconnections between the human and natural world.

Morning poem

1. "and the ponds appear like black cloth" - (simile/imaging of nature)

2. "summer lilies" - (symbol for answered prayers)

3. "thorn that is heavier than lead" - (religious allusion)

Wild geese

1. "You do not have to be good" - (repetition)

2. "the world offers itself to your imagination" - (personification)

3. “Meanwhile” the world goess on (anaphora, nature is a constant, natural cycle that is paradoxically continuing)

August

1. "the black honey of summer" - (metaphor for fulfillment)

2. ”thick paw of my life” - (zoomorphism)

3. ”Happy tougue” – (Personification of a tongue having emotion)

Dog fish

1. "swim through the fires to stay in this world" - (hardship)

2. "Also I wanted to…" - (metaphor for regret)

3. "You don't want to hear the story of my life" - (direct address)

4. you know what a smile means dont you? - (Rehtorical Question)

Sunflowers

“creak like ship masts” (Simile, wisodm)

“their faces are burnished disks” (Metaphor, diskd circle of life)

“Come with me” (Imperative + repetition, reinforces Oliver's invitation to engage with and appreciate nature.)

“Though it stands in a crowd of many” (Contrast / juxtaposition, feel loneliness and isolation even though they are righ tnext to each other like humans))

Mushrooms

1. "cool pursued lips of the wind" - (personification)

2. "Through, Through, Through" - (anaphora)

3. "Packed with poison" - (metaphor for nature's duality)

One of two things

1. "Perfectly lazy, riding motionless" - (oxymoron)

2. "The god of dirt // dog voice, crow voice, frog voice" - (framing)

3. vanished” (poets own struggle with existence and loving life)

Sunrise

1. "Another way to enter the fire" - (metaphor for transformation)

2. "small bodies be bound to the stake," - (historical allusion)

3. "Familiar fabric of dawn." - (metaphor for comfort)

4. “Whatever you want” - symbol for hope and opportunity (The sunrise is a mouldable sight it can mean many things.)

The fish

1. "i am the fish, the fish glitters in me, we are risen," - (resurrection, religious illusion)

2. "the water reflects the world" - (imagery)

3. "we swim together in the light" - (metaphor for unity)

Two Kinds of Deliverance

1. "Last night the geese came back" - (cycle of nature)

2. "and the trees….began to mutter" - (personification)

3. "Suck up their long roots" - (metaphor for history)

Vultures

1. "to eat it, to make it vanish, to make it of the miracle" - (repetition)

2. "No one, moreover wants to ponder it" - (human detachment)

3. "the unending waterfalls of change" - (metaphor for life's cycles)

The journey

1. "though the voices around you" - (exploration of challenges)

2. "you left their voices behind" - (metaphor for rising above)

3. "as you strode deeper and deeper" - (journey imagery)

The Turtle

1. "The birds that swim above her are tied to her by an unbreakable string" - (metaphor for connection)

2. "She can’t see herself apart from the rest of the world" - (realization of unity)

3. "the ocean breathes with her" - (personification of nature)