Owls By Mary Oliver Essay

‘Owls’ Mary Oliver Rhetorical Analysis Essay In this short excerpt from Mary Oliver’s ‘Owls’, the author carefully uses various rhetorical strategies to support comparisons in the beauty of nature. Oliver’s use of allusion and figurative language both contribute to the powerful comparisons of nature she makes. In this passage, the main example Oliver uses is comparing a great horned owl and a snow owl to a field of flowers, describing the owls with a striking and powerful presence and the field of flowers with an excessive beauty. Oliver successfully contrasts the two with great imagery and creates a balance of simple happiness and fear and awe.

Another reason why I chose to look into the owls is because I love owls. I always knew that owls symbolize with wisdom and “knowledge and erudition that can see through obscurity (and as the bird of Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom), the owl appears frequently in the emblems of scholarly publishing houses and book stores” (Biedermann, 250) but Bosch gives his owls different symbolic meanings.

Most poetry authors give their poems abstract titles with deeper meanings within them, but Oliver did not choose to do that method. As soon as a reader sees the title of her poem, they will have an idea in their head of what the poem will be about. Doing this makes it more simple and easier to read, but at the same time relay an important message that Oliver wants readers to know. The poem revolves around the idea of oxygen and the life it brings to everything, and Oliver’s way of directly giving that hint to readers is in the

In life, there are often many different ways to experience an event depending on a person’s background and field of study. Regarding these two passages, John Audubon, a scientist, and Annie Dillard, an artisan, describe a murmuration of starlings based on their experiences. The use of their craft in the description of this phenomenon is shown through their styles of writing. While both authors use descriptive language, Audubon utilizes an exact and scientific style while Dillard utilizes a reflective and poetic style.

Life can feel like lounging on the sand, staring into the cities of roses, however, with such happiness comes a deep, cruel truth called death. In this passage, Oliver’s style conveys the complexity of her response to nature by the double-meaning between the owl, the lie behind the “immobilizing happiness”, and the cold truth of these roses. Oliver’s style strives to show how nature is all but an illusion of life and death.

Burrowing owls are an amazing species of owl that is currently in danger. Historically, the owl

In the book”The Capture” written by”Kathryn Lasky” the author tells a life story of little owl

Wright examines the relationship of human being and nature using his descriptive language including such devices as imagery and similes. Wright sees the idea of nature and humans joining as one as a possible feat and he shows this though his written experience with these Indian ponies. He initially shows the contrast of the two worlds, but they grow on each other and end up becoming one. Wright sees the loneliness of the ponies, gains their affection, as the ponies are very welcoming. He ultimately ends up wanting to join them by being able to “break into blossom” (26-27), but he is unable to do so because he reached the maximum threshold of the union between humans and nature. Which brings us back to the Wright is able to disregard the average day for humans and take a day to appreciate the true value of nature in its

When Oliver was a child she had two things she loved to participate in: going outside and writing. In this quote, Oliver is saying that participating in activities like going out into a field, and reading a book can help anyone. When Oliver was a child she would do those activities, being outside helped inspire her writing. This led to her traveling into random parts of forest and fields. In the chapter “Winter Hours” Oliver has an interesting encounter with black oak trees. She states “I don’t say this lightly- that the great black oaks knew me. I don’t mean they knew me as myself and not another- that kind of individualism was not in the air- but that they recognized and responded to my presence and mood…” (151). She stated that the woods became her new home. She felt the warmth that a house would give you. Leading Oliver to believe that the trees knew her so well that they started to feel her presence, giving her serenity and peace whenever she was in the woods. Giving the

The thundering sound of hooves echoes in my ears as my horse comes barreling down the hill toward me. My whistle had caused him to go crashing through the tall grass and Queen Ann’s Lace in search of me once again. Coming to a sliding stop in front of me, I gently stroke his muzzle. Letting my hands glide over his fuzzy neck and into his jet black mane, I grab ahold and throw myself onto his strong back. We go running through the pasture, scattering wild rabbits and sending sparrows a flight. I watch them fly overhead, their brown wings leading them to rest in the big oak tree that my horse and I come to a halt underneath.

Harwood begins “Barn Owl” as a recount. She narrates the tale of a naïve child who early one morning literally “ crept out with (her) father’s gun” on a quest to commit murder. Not comprehending the true violence and destruction of the gun she was naïve of the pain she was about to inflict upon herself and an innocent creature. In contrast to the impeding tone of doom in Harwood’s poem,

Anne Lamott is an American novelist, nonfiction writer, essayist, and memoirist. She graduated from Drew College Preparatory School in San Francisco, California. Her father, Kenneth Lamott, was also a writer and was the basis of her first novel Hard Laughter. Anne’s life is registered in Freida Lee Mock’s 1999 documentary Bird by Bird: A film Portrait of writer Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird (first published January 1st, 1994) from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Lee Mock (Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision), it offers an intimate portrait and her craft because it is an inside look at the habits she takes to seat down in front of a white piece of paper and get started. Yet, the book is encouraging, realistic and she writes with truth and wisdom.

The poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver connects the both the natural and human world as it compares human life to the travels of wild geese. Touching on the landscapes of the natural world and emotions faced by the average person; Oliver manages to use devices such as tone, metaphors and descriptive images to convey a message that helps a person view life from a different perspective. Oliver makes it clear that the relationship between the wild and the human is coexistence; where one universe continues on if the parallel seems to have stopped. Thus, Oliver is able to move the reader on a comforting journey as she entangles the natural world and human world, showing that the natural world has more

A secondary reason I chose to explore the meanings behind the use of owls is because I have a personal fascination with owls. I already knew that owls are well-known for their association wisdom, as well as the association with specific “knowledge and erudition that can see through obscurity (and as the bird of Athena/Minerva, the goddess of wisdom), the owl appears frequently in the emblems of scholarly publishing houses and book stores” (Biedermann, 250.) However, Bosch chose to give his owls different, unconventional symbolic

In the beginning of The Tuft of Flowers, a newly mown field can be seen. The flowers and tall grasses, which had been a haven and a joy for insects, animals, and people, were unceremoniously assaulted by the blade of the workman. The author of the poem is observing the scene, alone; his loneliness is evident. However, this hopelessness is as he was before he noticed the tuft of flowers. He viewed all