Mary Oliver Rhetorical Analysis Essay

In “Introduction to Poetry” Billy Collins, a professor, writes about the impatience of his students when analyzing a poem. He starts off by stating that they should enjoy the poetry and not worry about what the author is saying. By the twelfth line he shifts into describing his student’s frustration and the way they “torture” the poems. His use of metaphor, simile, and enjambment emphasize that one should take the time to really understand what a poem is saying while having fun instead of overanalyzing every single detail.

Mary Oliver, a Pulitzer Prize winning author/poet, uses her essay “Of Power and Time” describes to readers the creative process that goes along with writing, and the obstacles associated with it (Poetry). She then explores various contexts in which creativity exists, or should/should not exist. Although many readers can appreciate what Oliver has to offer, she mainly directs her writing towards people who yearn for creativity but cannot find the time to develop it. Oliver uses a specific word choice, anomalous organization, elaborate analogies, bias, and a connection to religion in order to convey the idea that creativity takes time and effort.

In poems it is essential to be a creative writer. The author uses many techniques from from exposing deep thoughts to giving humorous jokes throughout the sentence. As a human being, we may have difficult times in understanding what is trying to be said. We may agree or disagree depending our viewpoints on life. One of my Favorite poems is “The Ballad of Sue Ellen Westerfield” by Robert Hayden. My favorite poem is the type of poem that has some history and confusion. When getting the audience confused, it makes them want to know more and reread the whole passage again. Hayden’s poem is a fresh new opening that brought an old dimension, his creativity to open the minds of others and look back to the past.

“Introduction to Poetry” and “Traveling Through the Dark,” are poems written by Billy Collins and William Stafford. The poem’s, “Introduction to Poetry”, main conflict is a teacher who tries to get his students to read and appreciate a poem, but what all the students only care about is figuring out what it means. The conflict is highlighted through the many uses of metaphors to help us understand how he wants the students to look and decipher a poem and how they only focus on finding the meaning instead of taking their time to listen and see the art of poetry. William Stafford’s poem, “Traveling Through the Dark,” describes a driver’s dilemma of deciding whether to throw a dead pregnant deer into the river, or leave it laying on the road where it can cause an accident. In both poems, the use of literary devices such as metaphors, personification, imagery, and diction are effective in making and building up the conflict and reaching the resolution.

I made the worst bad decision a girl could ever make and now you hate me. I know that. I also know that you could never forgive me. It makes me think. Was it really worth losing my best friend? Was it worth abandoning a friendship that lasted eight years? I wish you would just listen, Oliver. Can you really blame me for this? You were the initiator. You asked for it. Now you won’t even look at me. I don’t understand why you can’t just move on. I know you think I betrayed you and I know that you are ignoring me. In reality, all I did was do what you wanted. I miss you, Oliver. I know that you just want everything to go back to how it was, but it can’t. It will never be the same, especially with your illness. Change is a part of life

The observation I found most interesting in the poem, “Singapore”, by Mary Oliver is an anomaly, in which she briefly deviates from the poem’s initial setting and subject and then seamlessly returns back to it. This interjection could at first be seen as nothing more than an unwarranted description of what the author feels poems should entail- birds, waterfalls, and happiness- but deeper analysis finds that this interruption is still applicable to the poem’s overall theme of life’s peculiar inequity. This is because the desire to, “...stand in a happy place, in a poem” that the author notes stems from her confusion and discomfort with the beautiful woman she finds scrubbing toilets (line 13). She feels the pretty woman deserves

How I have missed you dearly. My life has been so changed by the loss of your presence. There is not a day that goes by where I do not miss your beautiful laugh. The pain of separation has been so severe, abstinence from writing you was necessary to quell the pain. But of course I focus on my own suffering, failing to realize the damage my absence has has done to you. My poor… child. I am so deeply sorry for what I have done to you. I only hope Anne was good to you these past 8 years, I am so disheartened to hear of her passing; she was such a wonderful mother to me. I can only imagine how old and pretty you must look. Surely your father has dressed you only in the prettiest of dresses; I have no doubt he has been kind to you, as he was to me. I am doubly sure you have become excellent in

Mary Oliver, the author of “Wild Geese” was born in Ohio in 1935. She began writing poetry at the young age of 14. Oliver was inspired by Edna St. Vincent Millay’s work (Poetry Foundation). In the 1950’s Oliver spent time studying at Ohio State University and Vassar College; around the same time she met her partner of 40 years, Molly Malone Cook (Gianoulis). In the 1960’s she moved to Provincetown New England. She later won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. During the time she wrote Wild Geese she was a Poet in Residence at Bucknell University.

Poetry is a powerful way that we can experience language, make connections that are not always apparent, as well as discoveries about ourselves, our emotions, and out connections with the world. Mary Oliver's poem, Wild Geese, for instance, speaks directly to the reader with encouragement, wonder, and hope. It does not rhyme in the conventional sense, and is more prose oriented. But, using the allusion of wild geese, soaring high above the basic cares of the world, we can completely understand Oliver's view that all things are possible. Too, the poem is quite musical in its rhythm:

Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” is one of her many romantic styled poems in her poetic career. This poem gives a message to the reader of what kind of relationship with nature she has, which brightens her qualities of being an isolated and quite person as she spent her time in nature. This short free verse poem does not have any rhyme or stanzas, but uses repetitive use of imagery. This use of imagery gives the poem irony that allows the reader, in some context, to connect to what Oliver is seeing and writing about in nature. Also, she follows the idea which everything in nature has a purpose and everything has a use for others. Oliver’s love of nature is supported through this poem by using this style, of use of imagery, in which she writes. This poem gives the reader a sense of evaluating his or her life with nature. “The Summer Day” supports this idea as stated before, that everything in nature has a purpose and everyone can connect to nature, she did this by asking theoretical questions about creation, alluding to three different types of

To compare a poem and an excerpt from a larger work, written by two different people, about different topics is to take the focal ideas from both and illustrate how alike they stand. On the surface they seem not to have anything in common, however upon closer inspection they do. They have more in common than the confusion and bewilderment, that through first glance, they left me with. More in common than the long, drawn out, hard to read sentences. And more in common than the words that seem to have no meaning or context.

In the episode “Scientific Studies” on the tv show “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”, he employs a plethora of rhetorical strategies to depict his point that not all “science” is necessarily science as most might assume; and how we as a people have become blinded and misled because these scientists are contradicting each other's’ findings. He does so by using humor, making comments that some people might be able to relate to, and by presenting basic logic and common knowledge.

‘Tribute’ is a poem consisting of eighteen lines in three sixtains, closely resembling the form of John Berryman’s “Dream Song” poems. The title of Jennings’ poem ‘Tribute’ sets up the readers’ preconceptions of a poem as a celebration, and an honouring towards a person with our admiration. Instead these ideas set in precognition are shattered when the reader begins reading the opening lines., The reader recognises the subject to Jennings ‘tribute’ being to “the tall poem”. On the one hand, this image could be thought of to be a designed creation of exaggeration in Jennings’ own intimidation on the approach of writing. On the other hand, the poem is unremitting in this approach, attempting to channel the underlying and unseen issues that remain hidden in the “shadows” of our minds. Jennings’ discussion of her own mental illness and this “tall poem”

First analyzing the poem “Mother to Son”, Hughes discusses the idea of moving forward despite the hardships that are encountered during the uphill battle. She describes her life as a staircase and the hardships as the tacks and splinters. Nevertheless, she presses on, which shows her perseverance and optimism in hopes to uplift and encourage her son to do the same. She describes her doubt and uncertainty with darkness yet, she doesn’t fold or turn back, and she continues to climb the unforeseen future ahead. This poem displays and expresses her determination even though the odds are against

Author J. K. Rowling, in her 2008 Harvard Commencement speech, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”, emphasizes that failing is okay and touches upon the importance of imagination. Rowling’s purpose is to convey her views on failure and why imagination is so vital on those in attendance, and any who may hear this speech. J. K. Rowling expresses her points by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, but not limited to, humor and irony.