1. How does the speaker feel about death, and how do you know? OR: How does the speaker feel about life, and how do you know?
2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: metaphor, repetition, simile, imagery.
Question 1: How does the speaker feel about life and how do you know?
ReplyDeleteMary Oliver tells us in her poem “When Death Comes” her thoughts about life and death. The author begins with comparing death to aggravating situations like “the measle-pox” or “an iceberg between the shoulder blades”. When she writes “I think of each life as an flower, as common as a field daisy, and as singular” she creates imagery. The connection between a flower and life shows that there are as many different and singular lives as there are flowers. There are flowers like cactuses who can live in the desert but then there are flowers that need much water and favor shadow. As many different flowers in different environments exist as many different lives exist. Furthermore, Mary Oliver wants to say that every life is beautilful like a flower. The sentence “each body a lion of courage, and something precious to the earth” refers to the thought that every single person is unique and precious. Because of the animal “lion”, she used in her poem we can infer that Mary Oliver associated every person with asset and courage. The last lines of the poem show that the author is anxious that she dies before she achieved something important in this world and that she wants her life to be real and meaningful.. Especially in the last line “I don't want to end up simply having visited the world” makes it seem like Mary Oliver thinks that every life has a meaning and everyone should contribute something to a better world.
Anna Goettler
In the poem, “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver, it compares and contrasts life and death. Mary Oliver mentions in the beginning how death may seem like a scary thing like a “hungry bear in autumn” or a “cottage of darkness”. The speaker thinks she will die without living life to the fullest. The author mentions “each life as a flower” to show how similar each person on earth is but yet so different at the same time. Flowers represent life and death. Flowers go through life and death without knowing when life is going to end but still bring prettiness and happiness for their time living which Mary Oliver is saying about how people should live their lives. The sentence, “I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility” shows that time is like death because it is only a temporary idea while life is like eternity because living life to the fullest can last an eternity.
ReplyDelete-Abby Schaetzlein
In the poem “When Death Comes” explains how situations in life are completely unexpected. The poem states, “when death comes/ like the measle-pox” proves my point about how life is so unexpected because getting the measle-pox is an infection you get out of nowhere. No one chose to want to have the measles. Furthermore, as the persona continues to reference how life is unexpected, they go on by explaining how they want to do something with their life rather than just watch time tick-tok. The persona says, “when it's over I want to say all my life/ I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.” This shows that they didn't let anything (any boy or person) get in the way of their dreams of taking risks because having the feeling of amazement means you tried something new. Lastly, even though the persona knows that life is unexpected they want to make the most of every minute and not “... end up simply having visited [the] world.”
ReplyDeleteQuestion #1 How does the speaker feel about death, and how do you know? OR: How does the speaker feel about life, and how do you know?
ReplyDeleteIn the poem When Death Comes by Mary Oliver, Mary feels that death comes quick and when you least expect it. According to the text Mary compares death to hungry bear which shows how's Mary views death as being something aggressive and you can't stop it from happening. Mary views as life being something so common but yet every form of life is special. Mary hopes that the day when her time is up she doesn't have any regrets as she states "when it's over, I don't want to wonder" and wishes to live her life to the fullest.
-Pedro Carmona
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ReplyDelete2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: metaphor, repetition, simile, imagery.
ReplyDeleteIn the poem “When Death Comes”, written by Mary Oliver, the author uses repetition several times to further extend the meaning of life and death. Mary Oliver repeats the phrase “I look” in the fifth stanza by saying “I look upon everything” and “I look upon time”. The repetition of this phrase suggests that during our so precious lives we need to look at and take in everything without sparing a single detail, because when death does come we can’t rest with fulfillment if we haven’t seen all that there is to be seen, and been able to experience the most meaningful of sights. Therefore, during our short lives we have to “look” at all there is to offer in this life and all that there is to experience. As well, in stanzas 10-12, the author begins the stanza with “I don’t want”. Given that the author locates this repetitive phrase at the end of the poem correlates with the idea that she will be talking about the end of life, and that we shouldn’t have to think about what we didn’t do. That we didn’t make our lives “something particular or real”, or have only “visited the world”. In the end of our existence we should have no doubts about the life we lived and if we made the right choices, in order to judge if we had a meaningful life.
-Kyle Jasman
In the poem "When Death Comes," by Mary Oliver, it shows detail about how unexpected death can be but also compares death and life and she uses lots of ways to show that time is very valuable and precious and that we should not take things for granted and how things happen so suddenly. When she says, "when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse," this shows how unexpectly death can come, especially when you just think you have a lot of time left, the coins show how valuable life is but the coins being taken from the purse shows how things can just happen even when we least expect it, this is shown by using imagery. She also says, "and I look upon time as no more than an idea, and I consider eternity as another possibility," this shows more compare and contrast and it shows her saying how she has hope for what the future holds, but also how everyone should just live before it's too late.
ReplyDelete-Emily Houtzeel
The speak in the poem "When Death Comes" views life not simply as something to be "lived through" but rather to be enjoyed until its end, fulfilling what you wish and doing what you wish rather than being tied down with what is seen as successful or long lasting, the speaker simply wishes to live for joy and for experiences. One line which exemplifies the joy which the speaker seeks in their life is:
ReplyDelete"When It's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement."
The author wishes to "marry... amazement" they wish to have their whole life attached to, as they would a spouse, amazement and the experience of things based on emotion and feeling. The speaker values how they felt their whole life, rather than what they achieved or what others thought of their life. This can be seen through the line:
"When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real."
By saying they do not wish to wonder if their life was "real" the speaker takes a strong stand for their view of life, it shows how the speaker does not care for the tangible as many other would or would have them do, they care more for experiences and feelings than they do of what they did that is "real."
Question # 2. Choose one of the following devices, identify it in the poem, and connect it to meaning: metaphor, repetition, simile, imagery.
ReplyDeleteYou
In the poem When death comes by Mary Oliver, she uses reputation of the word when. She wants to make it obvious that the reader know that death will come. The overall meaning of this poem is to show all the things you should do in life, " I want to step through the door full of curiosity: wondering"(Oliver line 9). She is saying how she want to Abe adventurous and not live her life wondering about the things she could've done, but didn't do. She uses figurative language, a simile, "when it's over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement"( Oliver line 22-23). The narrator what's the reader to think about the future and if they have done what they wanted to do with no regrets. You should, at the end, think back on all of the the moments you will never forget.
1. How does the speaker feel about death, and how do you know? OR: How does the speaker feel about life, and how do you know?
ReplyDeleteIn the poem " when death comes " by Marie Oliver, She in a way makes you look at her poem and back at your life with a brief connection as to what she's saying. When she says " I think of each life as a flower, as common as a field, and as singular, " She's showing that you are in control of your own life and you make what you want out of it weather its good or bad choices. For example the flowers she mentions are a representation of beauty and happiness, like people their growing up and with every passing day they become a little older and a little less beautiful and they don't know when it's their last that growing on the field they stand on. Us humans are the same we fear the day were no longer here which goes back to when she mentions " I don't want to end up simply having visited the world" I believe she's saying that she doesn't want to die without having enjoyed life and having life lasting experiences.