Figurative Language In Owls By Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is overwhelmed and in awe with the beauty of nature and conveys this through the passage “Owls” with apprehensive diction and first person perspective making the reader feel like they are right alongside her as she makes observations about the wild owls, their prey, and the peaceful flowers she sees. This apprehension is added to through the reverence Mary seems to have for the owls and the fear conveyed through that reverence in the first three quarters of the passage. In the diction throughout the passage are numerous references to the direction of the things around Mary, for example: the falling bark, swift and merciless great horn owls swooping down to catch their prey, owls soaring up into the sky overhead, and the song of …show more content…
The first side is the wild, reckless, “Indian Jones” side, filled with action, survival-of-the-fittest, adventure and perhaps darkness. This side is represented by the owls “swift and merciless….endlessly hungry and endlessly on the hunt.” The other side is the peaceful side represented by the roses. This is the side of the deer eating grass and the butterflies roaming around. This is the side of the meek and innocent with the “white tents of softness and nectar” and the “sweetness so palpable it’s excessive.” The tone shifts in between her description of these two sides and goes from the uneasy diction in the first three quarters of the passage to diction with a calming effect. None the less, through the two sides the reader gets a feeling both the wild and the peaceful are excessive in nature. Because of this similarity between the two subjects, not only can they metaphorically represent the two sides of nature, but anything the reader desires. This is why Mary Oliver was not specific in assigning the two subjects to stand for one idea. For example, another interpretation of the two main subjects in the passage, could be depicting good and evil in life, both potentially beautiful but both excessive. Mary says that each has an “abundant and …show more content…
In this metaphor, the owl is the wealthy, upper class, endlessly hungry for more money and being merciless and brutal to get it. The owls in the world seem to have no limit as to how low they will stoop to get their money or their kill and when they succeed their boastful shriek can be heard for miles around. Mrs. Oliver even further pushes this symbolism by saying “The world in which the owl is hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world” This shows the theme, common in her style of writing, that what happens in nature happens with