"wild geese" - mary oliver

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. 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 and over announcing your place in the family of things. tone: I thought the tone of this poem was calming and understanding. the first two lines start with "you do not have to.." this takes some weight off the readers' shoulders by reassuring them that they have nothing to live up to, they need not spend their whole life apologizing for who they are and what they do, as long as they are doing what they love. the rest of the poem encourages the reader by saying that we all have struggles that we endure and burdens that we carry with us but life goes on. word choice: words such as "meanwhile" add to the idea that life goes on no matter what you are going through or what you do. this adds some comfort that each day is a new day and our yesterdays don't matter in the grand scheme of things. when oliver says "You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting." it emphasizes how people are often much harder on themselves than they need to be. imagery: throughout the poem oliver uses the image of wild geese to express her idea of how we, as humans should live. geese do not apologize for what they do or try to impress anyone. oliver also uses imagery when she says "meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers." this expresses how the world is moving around us. style: the style of the poem contributes to the tone because it is very relazed and straight forward. oliver uses short lines to mirror how our thoughts and worries should be, short and straight forward. theme: i think the theme of this poem is that we should not sweat the small stuff but rather move on and enjoy life. i picked this poem because i liked the encouraging and comforting nature of it. i am often hard on myself when i make mistakes or when i do not live up to my own expectations that i have for myself. i have a lot of people in my life that lift me up during these times, like oliver is lifting the reader up in this poem. it reminds me of things that people in my life tell me when i am being too hard on myself or really struggling with something.