Figurative Language In Oxygen By Mary Oliver

I can tell you the authors style in the book In November by Cynthia Rylant. The style in her writings are mostly personification or figurative language. I know this because on page 4 it says "spreading there arms like dancers" based on what I read Cynthia Rylant uses personification also uses a simile. The book In November Cynthia uses tree limbs as dancers. She give a descriptive look as what the tree looks like. Cynthia Rylant uses a human action to a non human thing.

Mary Oliver’s book of poems, titled American Primitive, follows several themes and contains just under 50 poems. The most prominent theme is the grief cycle, following the seasonal cycle. This cycle follows the pattern where the situation gets worse before it gets better. There is a duration where the situation declines until things are very bad, as if there is no hope - as in fall to winter. This ultimately leads to the darkest point, the dead of winter. There seems to be no light, but then hope slowly appears, blossoming into full resurrection and restoration, parallelling spring and summer. Nature and sexuality are also essential aspects of the poems. I will discuss three of my favorite poems, “Lightning”, “University Hospital,

In the fields of flowers, Oliver describes her emotions as “I’m struck. I’m taken. I’m conquered.” This parallelism reveals her awe-stricken appreciation for nature as well as her overwhelming emotion towards it. She is unable to clearly think and focuses solely on the fields due to its beauty and charm. She “can’t move”, is “restless”, and is “replete, supine, finished, filled to the last edges with an immobilizing happiness.” Although these lines describe her happiness, Oliver contrasts this sections with lines earlier in the passage, expressing her fear of nature. This repetition of “They are” in describing the owl and its predator tendencies, she expresses fear and respect. Similarly, the lines “even skunks, even cats” show the greatness of the owl and truly show the intimidation of the owl and, in the same way,

Firstly, Mary Oliver uses a fractured and unique structure to show that hardships must be present in order for one to attain success. The poem is structured in such a way so that it starts off describing the struggles of crossing a swamp and life in general. For example, Oliver states,

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

Following her discussion of her positive experience with roses towards the end of the passage, Oliver shifts focus by contemplating about whether despite her fond appreciation of the beautiful rose fields which surround her environment, they are actually potentially overwhelming: “And is this not also terrible? Is this not also frightening? Are the roses not also–even as the owl is– excessive? Each flower is small and lovely, but in their sheer and silent abundance the roses become an immutable force...” Oliver’s dubious tone is most clearly exemplified through this series of questions, which she has struggled to discern.

Spring reflects a deep communion with the natural world, offering a fresh viewpoint of the commonplace or ordinary things in our world by subverting our expected and accepted views of that object which in turn presents a view that operates from new assumptions. Oliver depicts the natural world as a celebration of wonder and awe, the almost insignificant wonders capturing the true beauty nature beholds.

In Kate Grenville’s bildungsroman, “The Lieutenant”, Grenville uses figurative language to convey various ideas through the landscapes and character behaviours. One such idea presented is the evident secrets and distrust among characters in the novel. Grenville further presents the isolation that people who were suspected to in the late 1700s to early 1800s as well as the issues in the colonisation and slavery of the British Empire.

Immediately following the first statement, Oliver prompts that “You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.” The senseless wandering in a desert in harsh conditions is similar to the biblical story of Moses leading the Isrealites through the desert before reaching the Promised Land. By writing that the reader does not have to wander as a punishment leads into line four and five, where the speaker asserts that instead of being good, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” Instead of following what other’s want, the speaker proclaims that the only real necessity is to follow what your natural instincts, you animal, want. The speaker also declares inn lines six and seven that while you are talking about your despair, “the world goes on,” which proves that human traits of complaining and listening to others do not bring you closer to nature. In fact, the world continues as if you had not done anything at all. The poem then contrasts inert objects such as “the sun,” “the prairies,” and “the mountains” with objects that appear to be alive and move such as “the clear pebbles of the rain,” “the deep trees,” and “the rivers.” This compares the unmoving appearance of what society wants in the solid features of nature compared to the living and movement that is only sometimes perceived in the rain, trees, and rivers. The comparison can also be

Through the strong use of figurative language in this passage of Ann Petry’s, “The Street,” Lutie Johnson’s relationship with her urban setting is effectively expressed to the reader. As Lutie experiences a relentlessly windy November night, Petry explores the harsh details of her walk by creating a vision of the environment, and conveying its relationship with Lutie through the use of selection of detail, personification, and imagery. To begin the passage, Petry utilizes selection of detail to set the tone of the environment around Lutie. The wind is the first and most exhausting character to be discussed, as “It rattled the tops of garbage cans, sucked window shades out through the top of the opened windows and set them flapping back against the windows.” This excerpt represents the simpler effects that the wind has on the environment, and is purposefully composed of words and little situations that start to build it as a possible antagonist.

“But now I know more/ about the great wheel of growth,/ and decay, and rebirth”(Oliver). In the poem Stanley Kunitz by Mary Oliver, the speaker talks about a man who she at first misunderstands, but then realizes the reality about him. This man is Stanley Kunitz, who was the tenth Poet Laureate of the United States, and inspired many people(Poetry Foundation). Although many admire Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver admired him enough to write a poem about him, and how she wants to be as great of a poet as Kunitz. Even though at first Mary Oliver had misunderstood how Kunitz would work so ethically, and almost thought it was like magic. Oliver soon realized that it wasn’t magic, it had been hard work, which had make Kunitz such a phenomenal poet. Throughout the poem Oliver describes a garden, and how hard this man works to make it beautiful, which makes sense on the surface. When looking at the deeper meaning, the poem is about how hard work pays off and creates beautiful works of art.

Mary Oliver was just 28 years of age when she first published her first book titled No Voyage and Other Poems in 1963. During the 50’s she studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College, but did not attain a degree. She did however, meet her partner of almost 50 years, Molly Malone Cook. While together, Oliver’s love for nature and words thrived for the last 60 or more years, even after the death of her partner in 2005 (About Mary Oliver). Susan Salter Reynolds, in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, took notice that Oliver’s earlier poems are almost always about nature, never personal.

Poetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.

The poem begins with Oliver imagining death in a variety of different forms. The first is a simile comparing the arrival of death to a bear. Oliver states, “When death comes/like the hungry bear in autumn” (lines 1-2). It creates a strong image because in autumn bears are searching for food in order to put enough weight on to hibernate through the winter. This bear is desperate for food, making the bear seem scary and violent. Also this death is expected; every fall bears prepare for hibernation. Thus death is

The speaker then leaves the voices behind, ignoring the “melancholy.” This is tragic but realistic as life is filled with problems, making it futile to try and help everyone who asks. The second stanza marks the beginning of the speaker’s journey. The beginning line, “it was already late enough,” means the speaker wishes that they had decided to lead their desired life sooner. “The road full of fallen branches and stones” signify hardships one faces while on the path to personal growth, proving that life presents challenges along the way that must be overcome. Line 21 marks a tonal shift in the poem in which the speaker gradually finds their “voice” or individuality after years of following the crowd. Imagery like “the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds” once again ties in nature and connects stars to hope. Oliver uses an anaphora for the last four lines, to emphasize that the only life one can save is their own. Her use of the word “you” instead of “I” interestingly connects the speaker to the reader, spreading the message to live authentically and for oneself. Oliver’s transcendentalist beliefs are hard to miss in this poem, as she herself is known to be a private person