Essay about Wild Geese by Oliver

The loss of Aboriginal ethnicity is also highlighted when the land asks “Where are the laws and legends I gave?” This dates back to the Aboriginal culture, as their spirituality is inextricably linked to the land. They believe everything on the vast landscape has meaning and purpose. As long as they look after the land, the land will thereby return the favour. However, through time, Aboriginals have begun shifting away from their original beliefs as their world collides with the Western world. Different meanings could be made out of this; such as the more Aboriginals walk away from their culture, the less inclined the land will be to look after them, thus breaking the chain of their spirituality and beliefs. Caesuras such as full stops and question marks are used are pauses for a moment of reflection. Through the reader’s understanding of the poem’s structure, they are able to not only understand how the poem is to be read but also get the feel and emotions coming across from the poet.

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

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.

The appreciation of nature is illustrated through imagery ‘and now the country bursts open on the sea-across a calico beach unfurling’. The use of personification in the phrase ‘and the water sways’ is symbolic for life and nature, giving that water has human qualities. In contrast, ‘silver basin’ is a representation of a material creation and blends in with natural world. The poem is dominated by light and pure images of ‘sunlight rotating’ which emphasizes the emotional concept of this journey. The use of first person ‘I see from where I’m bent one of those bright crockery days that belong to so much I remember’ shapes the diverse range of imagery and mood within the poem. The poet appears to be emotional about his past considering his thoughts are stimulated by different landscapes through physical journey.

The reader can first determine Oliver’s appreciation for nature through her vivid and crystal clear imagery of the “great horned” through the night. With its “razor-tipped toes” and “hooked-beak,” Oliver’s descriptions of the great horned owl show her respect towards the owl, and in the same vein, nature. Similarly, “the white gleam of the [snowy owl’s] feathers” effectively indicates Oliver’s respect and positive attitude towards nature and its picturesque qualities. At the same

Overflowing her poem with the details of her vision, Oliver effectively transports the reader into the story being told. “My bones knock together at the pale joints, trying for a foothold, finger hold,” (line 13). The speaker in this story is struggling for what seems like endlessly, describing to the reader the exact torture that his/her body is experiencing.

Both speakers ply nature as setting to express their emotion.the speaker in the poem “The Lonely Land”apply “cedar and jagged fir’s action” as setting to express the lonely environment of the poem and the negative attitude.

Oliver’s passage is largely constructed with complex sentences, which provide insight into her views of nature. Following her discussion of various types of owls which she is accustomed to seeing and hearing, Oliver connects her experiences of wondering about nature to her own life, stating: “The world where the owl is endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too.” In this example, Oliver’s

The title itself almost says the poem, providing implicit imagery and evoking a sense of freedom and wilderness. The geese are free and natural, unlike humans who are constrained by the values and attitudes inhibited on us by society in which we conform to and accept, hindering our ability to be truly free and released like the natural world is.

Disgusted, the speaker sees how society has morally degraded itself in exchange for wealth and greed. The frustrated tone of the poem becomes further elevated when the speaker exclaims, "We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!" (4). Blinded by the daily drudgeries of life, people have become impervious to nature, despite some of the grand displays that one can behold. The speaker describes beautiful images of nature such as the sea, howling winds, and flowers that no longer create an emotional response in people. Since the world has become so out of touch with nature, mankind is no longer able to appreciate the drama that takes place between the wind and the moon. Additionally, the speaker claims that society has become so indifferent to nature that, "Little we see in Nature that is ours;" (3).

To start, is how Oliver had believed that Kunitz was like Merlin when it came to writing poetry. It seemed to her that Kunitz was this amazing poet and it was effortless, just like magic. For example Oliver stated, “but their own good lives,/ where petals float upward,/ their colors exploding,/ and trees open their moist/ pages of thunder(8-12). These lines in the poem had been in the first stanza, when Oliver had first misunderstood Kunitz’s work ethic. When

The Chinese people have experienced rapid change, in government and culture in the 20th century. Although the common people seemed to have risen up against oppression from the ruling class, liberty and equality often remains out of their grasp. For centuries the dynastic cycle has dominated the culture and collective consciousness of the Chinese people. This process is characterized by unification, followed by prosperity and success, followed by corruption and instability, and finally rebellion and overthrow. This gives way to a new dynasty that was said to have received the mandate of heaven. This cycle, in some ways, ended with the fall of the Qing dynasty. This marked the end of over 2000 years of

Finally in the third stanza there is the semantic field of nature: ‘mountain’, ‘rivers’, ‘seas’. Nature has the role of judge. It decides whether she has to be punished or not. Nature is represented as a sort of divine entity deciding of her fate because she has decided of someone else’s right to live. Again the water is represented several times with ‘rivers’ (line 17) and ‘seas’ (line 18 and 19) it gives the impression that she thinks

The wild in this piece allows for the reader to recognize nature as an escape from what is expected; an escape from ones reality. The lines “whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting/ over ans over announcing your place / in the family of things”, support this implication as they tell that the world is open to all. Oliver invites the reader to listen to what the world around tells us, comparing us with wild geese, who fly alone yet in an inclusive form, honking to keep in contact with each other in flight, connected in the “family of things.” The human species moving through this life together are analogical to the flock of geese, as all of us become one species despite diving lines when in a state of nature/ wildness. There is no specification as to what is home in the poem, allowing the human world to be tied in as it leaves it open to interprets whether home exists in the wild. The reader is pulled out of a moment in our pressured world, and puts us into another moment – one vastly more real, more understanding, as we are allowed to decide where home is; if home truly exists.

This poem dramatizes the conflict between liberty and servility by giving an account of a common man’s life through the “reports” (3) of the higher ups like the “Bureau of Statistics” (1). The speaker tells the reader how this man had “in everything he did served the Greater Community” (5), and “satisfied his employers” (8). He was a regular Joe, one who “liked a drink” (13) and “bought a paper every day” (14). He had “everything necessary to the Modern Man” (20) and is said to be “a saint” (4). This man is quintessentially living the so entitled “American Dream” that many strive for. Despite this, there are some things in Auden’s poem that indicate that this man, amidst a nation of liberty, was actually servile to higher powers.