The Idea Of Mortality In Mary Oliver's A Blackwater Woods

Mary Oliver’s “A Blackwater Woods” is centered on the idea of mortality. With mortality comes a tension between what is tangible and what is abstract, as well as what is known and what is unknown. The poem describes what is necessary to be mortal and presents death not as something that is to be feared, but something to be accepted and even preferred. At the beginning of the poem the speaker’s initial tone is commanding, but more passive than urgent. Over the course of the poem the speaker’s tone shifts from easygoing to a commanding as well as demanding one. The change in the speakers tone relays a shift in the poem where it first deals with details of nature, and then turns to focusing on human life and mortality.
A word that sets the tone …show more content…
At the end of the sentence, the period marks a shift in the emphasis of the poem from focusing on specific images of nature that display the two tensions of real versus abstract and the known versus the unknown, to a broader and mortal timeline of a “lifetime.” As well as a shift in focus of the poem, the voice of the speaker becomes personal with her use of the “I” pronoun, and this functions to humanize the tensions created in the opening of the poem. Although the second section of the poem has a greater focus on mortality, the speaker still displays her ideas through imagery of nature. An image of “the fires and the black river of loss” presents the idea of death by, again, illustrating specific pictures of the physical world, and juxtaposing them with broad and abstract ideas—“loss.” Following the image of death is a direct reference by the speaker to the second tension addressed in the poem, what is known contrasting with what is unknown. The speaker indicates that the river’s “other side is salvation, [but] whose meaning none of us will ever know.” Without relaying her message with imagery or metaphoric language the speaker makes extremely clear that the unknown of “salvation,” or life after death, is an important …show more content…
No other phrase in the poem is repeated, and this indicates that the words “to let it go” are the central to the message of the poem. Although it is only a four word phrase, and may seem insignificant, the brevity of the phrase, “to let it go” further highlights the importance of the phrase. Without the final phrase in the poem the contrasts established earlier between the real and abstract, and between the known and unknown, would have no purpose. Only by including the final phrase in the poem, is the speaker’s message and intent in developing the tensions that are developed throughout the poem revealed. The last phrase of the poem serves to relay that although mortality is comfortable and real, one should not be afraid of the mystery of death, since it is a natural part of