Wild Geese

I read "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver, which I found to be quite tasteful. I liked it because it has this calming effect. I've always felt that people, especially students, have too much stress in their lives, and so the airiness of this poem struck me. It reminded me that in the long run, that one missing homework assignment or that lower standardized test score isn't going to mean anything. Anyway, here's the poem:

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.

I thought the tone of the poem was calming. Oliver's initial two lines start off with "You do not have to", which I felt takes pressure off the reader; there are no expectations to live up to, no bar to reach. She also describes "clear pebbles of the rain" and "deep trees" and "mountains and the rivers", which create a calming tone. Not to mention Oliver says "no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination", which takes a lot of internal worry out of me, at least, adding to the calming nature of the poem.

The word choice was definitely indicative of the calming tone. Words like "clear" and "clean blue air" create images of purity and peace. There are no dark images either, and it mentions the "sun" as a light image.

Again, there is imagery with the description of the landscapes, the "mountains and the rivers" and such, which kind of puts the reader closer to nature, in a way. There is also a comparison of the wild geese to us humans. It says that the imagination that is offered to us by the world "calls to you like the wild geese", which means that these geese that are "high in the clean blue air" are what we should be. We should leave behind trivial worries and fly high and free in the massive world like the wild geese.

The style of "Wild Geese" is also important. Oliver chooses to write in short lines to show that our concerns should be short as well. She wants us to understand that we should not sweat the small stuff, and that we should be free, just as her lines are.

The theme of this poem is: One should not dwell on mistakes, and should move on in life rather than beg for forgiveness.

I would also like to add that it is interesting how Oliver writes "Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. / Meanwhile the world goes on." As if to say that even if we fret over our troubles, the world around us is so much bigger that our small internal worries our inconsequential. So maybe my new theme would be "One should not dwell on mistakes, and should move on in life rather than beg for forgiveness for trivial worries that do not affect the big picture".

Is "big picture" figurative language? I'm gonna go with it, anyway.