English 11

Name: Neeracha Lokunpai (Medkao)

Teacher: Mr. George Schelz

Date: 27 May 2017

Life Guider

In her poetry, Mary Oliver uses literary devices such as simile, metaphor, imagery,

symbolism and personification to honour (human) life and to inspire people to live according

to their beliefs/principles. Mary Oliver is a writer of many famous poems. With her creativity

and unique writing style of a free and continuous verse, she has received many prizes

including the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She is best known for connecting

the natural to the things in daily life. Most people get inspiration from reading her poems.

The use of descriptive words has caught the reader's mind by combining the different

perceptions of humans, plants, and animals.

"The Journey" 's main point is to teach us to follow the voice from our own heart by

the use of symbolism. Conformity is when an individual decides to speak or act in a certain

way because they follow the majority. Mary Oliver believed people listen and care too much

about the society and most of the time they've followed what others believed or did. In this

poem, it states about the transformation of people though from listening to the other to accept

to oneself. Oliver tries to convince the reader to listen to their own heart, and the follow their

own though as shown in the first stanza, [T]hough the voices around you keep shouting their

bad advice, (3-4) which means that the word from other doesnt help us to be better. In

opposite, it's more worse. The imagery and symbolism present in [R]oad full of fallen
branches and stones, (20-21) where branches and stone are the symbol of hardship and the

problem that we all have to encounter in daily life. The stone is the barrier that we all has to

be passed in the roads life. A path that is not strewed with the smooth carpet. It could make

us spill out or falling down. This line give reader the picture of a bumpy road. Its shade from

the tree but theres also a dead twig that falls down on the way. "[B]ut you didnt stop. You

knew what you had to do, though the wind pried, with its stiff fingers at the very

foundations," (13-16) is a personification. The finger, a limb of the human body, is giving a

human quality to a non-living such as the wind. In order to live legitimately, we should

decide to listen to our own voice rather than the society. The poem directed to the life of

acceptance the new and leave behind the old.

Wild Geese is a poem that using the imagery of freedom as a poetic device to

message the reader to inspires people to be the best of themselves. Frequently, we are taught

that if we are good, we will get a reward. Oliver shows in the first line of the poem

You do not have to be good, that for some reward, we dont have to be good. Meanwhile

the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, (8-9) indicate the

metaphor by illustrating the movement of the rain that travels across the sky to go back home

like the human or geese. The repetition of word meanwhile in line7,8,12 shows that

everything is still moving on even though the life is not perfect. It guides us to do whatever

make us happy and to leave behind all the mistake and guilt. [M]eanwhile the wild geese,

high in the clean blue air, are heading home again, (12-13) gives the image of wild geese

flying high in the clear blue sky with a hope of going home or going back to our safe place.

Oliver tries to convince the reader to accepted what had happened and be opened. The flight

gives an image of freedom. [W]hoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself

to your imagination, (14-15) delivered that no matter how sick, suffer, loneliness we are, the
world will always offer something to you, hope. Wild Geese gives a message of hope.

Everyone in the world has their own hard time and difficulty, but the world keeps moving and

never going back. If we stopped for a while and looked around, we will see that theres still a

beautiful and exciting life.

When death comes explores the arrival of death that we all have to confront. Oliver

appeals the death as a pathway to peace. She tries to say that it doesnt matter about how we

die, but it is what we left behind for the others to see and discuss. In this poem, Oliver uses

the title When death comes as a figurative and imagery by making the reader imagine what

is it going to be like when we die and reminding people to live their life enough, so they dont

have to be regretful when death comes. The beginning of the poem shows the use of simile by

pairing death to the hungry bear in autumn. [W]hen death comes like the hungry bear in

autumn, (1-2) gives us the image of the wild bear finding the food during the fall which is

the season that the bear demand more food to prepare for the hibernation. This is like people

who struggle against death. [W]hen death comes and takes all the bright coins from his

purse, (3-4) is personification because of death, a state of mind, is imagined as the arrival of

the person. The bright coin is also the contrast of the death where people usually imagine

death as something dark. [A]nd I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field daisy,

and as singular, (15-16) also present the use of simile by comparing flower to life. The

flowers are all familiar because of its abundant, but as an individual, each flower has its

uniqueness. The author tries to give us the aspect of life which is no differ from the daisy

flower. The word death appear in the poem five times. The author wants to imply that death

is one component in our life. We dont have to be feared to death. In contrast, we should see

death as a route to defining the way we lived

 Each poem of Oliver has gone through the use of imagery, as a device to motivate

people to live the way beliefs, to appreciate life, and to values the way we live. She always

corroborates the real life situation to the natural thing in the world. Her writing style

genuinely reflects the nature that surrounded us. She wants the reader to understand about the

occurrence in life and be real to oneself.

References :

Gow, B. (2014, February 18). JOURNEY by mARYoLIVER. Retrieved May 12,

2017, from https://prezi.com/aj83dm1nvysg/journey-by-maryoliver/

 Mary Oliver . (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2017, from

https://www.enotes.com/topics/mary-oliver/critical-essays

Mary Oliver. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2017, from

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/mary-oliver

Mary Oliver. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2017, from

http://faculty.asd.wednet.edu/~asmithson/oliver.htm

Mary Oliver Poetry Analysis. (2012, December 11). Retrieved May 12, 2017, from

https://whendeathcomes.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/mary-oliver-poetry-analysis/

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). When Death Comes Analysis.

Retrieved May 23, 2017, from http://www.shmoop.com/when-death-comes/analysis.html

"The Journey" by Mary Oliver: a sample literary analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved May 16,

2017, from http://lovetowrite.typepad.com/mskwebsite/2007/04/the_journey_by_.html

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver, an analysis. (2016, July 14). Retrieved May 23, 2017,

from http://www.shadowofiris.com/wild-geese-mary-oliver-analysis/