In this poem, Mary Oliver uses a lot of different writer's devices to make it complete.
Some of the major devices in it are imagery, personification, rhetorical questions, and metaphors. Which of these, or another device that you found, did you like the most? Which made the poem most effective?
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16 comments:
I really liked this poem. I enjoyed all the details that she use to describe everything."Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden, and softly,and exclaiming of their dearness,fill your arms with the white and pink flowers," with this part I could really picture it in my head.
I found this poem to be extremely well written; it seems like Oliver chose all of her words very carefully. I liked her use of personification best. The way she made the sun and flowers come to life made the poem so real to me. "As the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers," this passage gives the sun more powers than it truly has. Yet, I can imagine the sun's rays acting like fingers caressing everything in its path. On the other hand, the element I found most effective was her use of rhetorical questions. The first question came out of no where because I was not expecting the author to start talking to me, personally. Oliver was describing this scene with flowers and the sun and randomly pops in the question, "Do you love this world?" To me, she put that in there after all imagery to make readers love this world. With such a beautiful picture in their minds, readers can't help but be in a blissful state.
I am not big into poetry, mostly because I don't get it sometimes. I've read this through a few times, and I would have to say what grsbs me the most was the rhetorical questions. The questions seem to cement what she is trying to get accross to me. I like the vivid details she uses as well, but I think she makes her point with the questions.
Overall, I liked the imagery. I could picture the scene she was painting clearly in my mind with Kathleen's voice as the author's (it's a weird thing I do).
I also liked how she broke up her sentences. It made the flow more effective and easy to follow.
The personification was really good in this poem. The flowers practically came to life. I did like this poem because only because of what the sun said,
"Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?" that rhetorical question stuck out to me because in order to have the beauty of something there is usually something not so nice or darkness behind it.
I really liked the vivid descriptions the author used to bring this writing to life. I have a hard time reading poems, I'm not as into them as I am into essays or stories so this one is one of the exceptions for me.
I thought this poem was ok but i am in the same boat as chris. i'm not that big into poetry so this wasnt one of the more fun readings but it wasnt that bad. The detail in this poem was amazing. i also agree with rooster in the fact that the sentance breaks really made the poem flow really nice. i believe that she used personification the best. the way she described the flowers and the sun was really amazing. i felt like i was looking at them.
This was a very descriptive poem that put images into your head but I wasn't really a big fan of it. I don't really read that many poems if I have to but this one was one of the more descriptive ones i've read. Her use of personification and imagery was very good throughout the whole poem so I didn't have a favorite line.
I really loved this, to start out with. The poem had a very specific flow to it, and even though some of the sentences were rather long, you were able to maintain your place throughout the whole thing.
As for the description, I really felt in-tune with what was happening thanks to her specific use of colors.
My initial concern about the piece was that the flow seemed to change unexpectly when the rhetorical questions came up-- but after I re-read it, I've come to see that they're more like grounding lines.
Overall, very beautiful.
I read through a couple of other people's comments and the majorty of them said that they liked it. I personally didn't care for it to much. I found it hard to read. I got what it was about the first time, but I didn't fully understand it. I did like the imagery that Oliver used though. When she talks about how they open up with pools of lace, white and pink. Also i think the rhetorical questions helped make the poem.
I really enjoyed the first metaphor, giving such a delicate flower green fists. I also enjoyed the description of the sun, describing the first rays of light as tired fingers of of an old person. So the light is soft and feeble.
The description of the wind blowing the flowers as if in a great wedding dance really works because I can imagine the peonies in a wedding somewhere.
The theme of how fragile nature and how nothing is the same forever really made the poem very beautiful to me. At the begining you don't quite understand what she means by "break my heart" but it makes doesn't sense until it explains "perfect for a moment, before they are nothing, forever?"
Oliver incorporated a lot of different techniques in this poem, but I think the one that had the most influence on the piece is imagery. This poem thrives on detail, and most of it is coming from scenes heavily illustrated for the reader. When I was reading it I almost felt like I was viewing the scene from above, which is third-person view, usually I don't get that experience from poem's but the imagery was incredible in this piece.
I think the other technique that helped the poem along was personification. Oliver created life in objects that we usually don't see anything in, which really added to this poems presence.
I like this poem. I thought that personification and imagery were the most effective for me. I really enjoyed picturing everything as i read through this poem. Parts such as "as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers" and "the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air" were very effective for me and gave me great images to go off of. Yet some of the questions were a little off the wall for me some were also helpful as well. "Do you cherish your humble and silky life?" This is somewhat sarcastic to me but makes me wonder, am i greatful for the things I have? But also makes me realize that I don't often think about what bad things are going on in the world, since I'm so stuck in my own life. That's sad..
I really liked this question at the end;
"Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,
with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?"
It just made me think about being little and making necklaces out of flowers or picking bouquets for my mom. It made me small.
i agree with chris, i dont really like poetry either. i have a hard time picking up on things throughout it, so i didnt really like it personally. i didnt really get the drift of the poem. but i do like the imagery.
I liked the imagery, but I thought it was a little confusing. I didnt really understand it.
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