Comparison Of My One Wild And Precious Life By Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is a well known author that has written books and poems like “A Thousand Mornings”, “The House of Light”, and many others. Oliver grew up in Ohio and went to Ohio State University and Vassar College. Oliver published her very first poem when she was 28 called, “ No Voyage and Other Poems”. The passage Of Power and Time comes from the book “Blue Pastures”, written in 1995. Mary Oliver, since becoming a writer, has won the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. In the passage, “Of Power and Time”, Mary Oliver grasps the attention of aspiring writers by talking about the interruptions in life, her three selves, and the ordinary versus extraordinary aspects of life.

Mary Oliver’s work turns towards nature as a source of inspiration it has been and describes her sense of wonder that it instills on her. She writes in “when the death comes” as follows: "I want to say: all my life / I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." Her outlook in life was more focused on the strict role nature played in people’s lives which can be seen in her poems; “the horse”, “the sun”, and “the summer day”- "Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me what is it that you plan to do with your one

Some discoveries may be the result of significant experiences that one undergoes. In moving on from these experiences, the discoveries can be provoked and have the ability to open the eyes of individuals. Gwen Harwood’s “Father and Child” explores the growth and maturation of a child. Harwood shows the juxtaposition between innocence and maturity and the way that discovering this deepens the perception one has of the world. The

All good things must come to an end. A common phrase we have become accustomed to hearing, and a phrase that parallels the meaning of Annie Dillard’s “The Chase”, an excerpt from her autobiography “An American Childhood.” In “The Chase” (1987), Annie Dillard recounts how childhood, no matter how enjoyable, will come to a close. Dillard conveys this by carefully detailing her childhood experience as a tomboy and that “nothing girls did could not compare” (1). Her experience during “the chase” symbolized an end of Dillard's childhood and wishing for “the glory to last forever” (19). The author recounts her story of “the chase” in order to express exuberance and love for childhood compared to the fact of mandatory growing old. The author addresses the audience in this narrative chapter of “An American Childhood” to express how short childhood is is this passing craze of life. The author uses expertly composed imagery, parallelism, diction and tone to create the impactful story in a chapter of her autobiography.

As a little girl, I saw the world in the best light simply because innocence clouded my judgement. As a child, I was innocent of mortality, as a teen hope, and as a young adult love. However, later on that innocence took on the role of ignorance. Not in the sense of not being knowledgeable or educated on the matter, but rather knowing it all too well that I choose not to acknowledge it. Innocence can be served as an instrument to block out surroundings when problems arise. It is an illusion of reality to protect what the individual desires to be true to what is actual. In Wendy Cope’s poem “Reading Scheme,” Cope writes about an affair more from the perspective of children by using the villanelle form to illustrate the inability of the

Margaret Sanger’s speech starts by stating that even though the twentieth century was supposed to “see the old world of ours converted into a beautiful garden of children,” there has been little to no change made towards making the twenty-first century a century for the children (Sanger, 1925). At the beginning the speech Sanger utilizes the analogy between raising children and raising a garden by announcing, “You cannot have a garden, if you let the weeds overrun it.” (Sanger, 1925). This analogy provides a truth on how society lacks in the success “in creating a century of children” (Sanger, 1925). The analogy allows Sanger to shape the beginning of her speech. “A garden creates images of intimate, welcoming homes where

The poem seems to be directed toward parents who might relate to Wilbur as they watch their children grow up.  Likewise, the poem might also be directed at young people, who will inevitably undergo a journey similar to that of Wilbur’s daughter in the poem – fraught with many ups and downs, and hopefully the triumph that the

She wrote the poem The Journey in 1986 which featured in her book Dream Work. ‘The Journey’ by Mary Oliver is about the journey one takes through life in order to become an individual. From the beginning of the poem the speaker focuses on the need to leave behind what is bad and wrong and harmful and start out on a new path. “The voices around us” this talks of the voices of society, that do nothing but “shout their bad advice”.  This suggests that we live in a world where in order to be “normal” we must obey to society and must live how everyone else wants use to.

While reading the poem, there are many different words and phrases that the author uses that suggest a sad, remorseful tone. The author uses phrases which imply that she does not want to grow up. The speaker sees teenagers around her every day, eager to grow up and become independent. However, she sees the world as it is, without blinders, and realizes that she needed to savor her time as a child. She is constantly seeing children around her, running into life, and not

In his poem, “anyone lived in a pretty how town,” E. E. Cummings describes the life lived by the average joe, symbolized by protagonist “anyone,” in the average “pretty how town” setting. Cummings asserts that children will be born and raised to all be the “same,” with no individuality, then grow into “busy” adults who “cared for anyone not at all,” and perhaps one day get married, live their lives, and die, still with “nevers,” or an unfulfilled bucket list. It is through the use of repetition, foreshadowing, and figurative language that Cummings conveys a mood of sad inevitability as he explains how this lifestyle repeats itself in cycles and how death will come to everyone, all while they live their lives in a society that might be “pretty,” but which lacks any real sense of community and individuality. Cummings uses repetition to point out how life goes on, and how each generation repeats a cycle.

The text, in a surprising manner, does much to challenge the readers conventional thought processes in regards to children's lives. Most intriguing is the work of Wendy Ewald who displays the complexity and hardships faced by children all over the world. With her art and photography, Ewald displays the complexities that are ever present in the lives of many children around the world, particularly in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Ewald also shows that in many respects, the lives of children are very similar, if not more complex than their parents as they grapple with poverty, growth, and development of their own cognitive capabilities. I personally appreciate how Ewald incorporates many of her own student's photographs in her overall portfolio of work. As the text explains, it is often difficult to tell if a work is Ewalds or that of one of her students. This challenges conventional representation of ideas as Ewald allows her child students to display their feelings without any boundaries or restrictions. This allows her students to have a free flowing mindset as to their own thought processes and developments. Furthermore, this allows many of her students to become more aware of their personal feelings and through processes. This, in my opinion, is very important as children can further enhance their own capabilities once they are aware of them personally. All too

After reading the poem, “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver, I could think about what I want to do for my own precious time. Life is only once, and I don’t want to regret what I have done so far or from now on. This poem is a good example to describe how I feel towards the future. It is important to think about what I should do or want to achieve in my precious life.

“Ode to enchanted light” by Pablo Neruda (1904- 1973) and “Sleeping in the Forest” by Mary Oliver (b. 1935) are both lyrical poems that both express their love for nature and the beauty of it. Neruda and Oliver recognized and accomplished writers who have both won many awards for their work in literature. Both of the poets express different styles and forms of writing as of figurative language and structure. The poem “Ode to enchanted light” is a lyrical poem which functions as a free verse poem because it doesn’t follow any set of rules but is still considered a traditional poem due to the fact that it is an ode. Although there is no rhythm in this poem, one could argue that there is because of the alliterative “s” sound being repeated throughout

As a naturalist, Mary Oliver is describing an experience of tasting “tamed” honey, which creates a desire for the real, natural honey. So she goes out into the forest and “experiences” eating the honey and finding everything that was lost. I believe she is referring to nature being lost, and by eating and experiencing nature, you are finding it. In the course of the grief cycle, this poem falls in the middle of summer, in line with the theme of full resurrection and restoration. Oliver describes bliss in the form of eating this perfect and natural honey. Although I am not as extreme as her in my appreciation for nature, I can relate to her love for nature, and I can also relate to her extreme devotion to nature, except mine is towards God.

In my opinion, bravery, dignity, and kindness also play a significant role in determining the meaning of life for most people. Bitter self-preservation motives forget human dignity tend de-rank themselves to animals. This can be corrected by bravery in understanding that fate can be from any angle and the only way to counter is by perseverance in situations that seem hard to break. Finally, all we need is a change in the way we see life. It does not matter what you expect from life, what is important is what life expects from