22 pages • 44 minutes read
Oxygen
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Literary Devices
Meter & Form
Oliver constructs "Oxygen" as a free verse poem written in 24 lines. "Oxygen" lacks unified rhymes, meter, and repetitions as a free verse poem. Meter is a repeating sequence of syllables across lines or stanzas. As such, the poem resembles natural speech and takes on an informal and conversational tone. This connects well with the setting, which is at the home of the speaker and their partner, as well as the natural feeling of a familiar, long-term relationship.
Oliver breaks her poem into three-line stanzas. The contrast between the uniform three-line stanzas and the lack of uniform line length, rhymes, meter, and repetition mirrors the act of breathing. The stanzas represent a person's need to breathe. However, breathing varies in depth, length, and speed, just as Oliver uses enjambment to connect between stanzas. The unrestricted free verse allows Oliver to capture the variety of ways a person experiences breathing.
Axiom
An axiom consists of a statement or proposition generally accepted as true, accurate, or established. Writers and debaters then use this accepted truth as the starting point for an argument.
In "Oxygen," Oliver creates an axiom in the first stanza: "Everything needs it: bone, muscles, and even, / while it calls the earth its home, the soul" (Lines 1-2). From an outside perspective, people usually learn from an early age that most animals need oxygen to survive. Oliver greets her readers with this well-known fact. Even if this fact was not well known, Oliver constructs the sentence in the first two lines to emphasize its truth. "Everything needs it," the speaker states (Line 1). The phrase's direct simplicity gives the speaker an air of authority. The colon adds emphasis to the specific things that need oxygen. It also allows Oliver to break her sentence into pieces, emphasizing it as plain fact.
The beginning axiom builds a proof of Oliver's statement into the rest of the poem throughout the scene. The oxygen allows the fire to rise, the speaker to know their love still lives, and the couple to live together.
Personification
"Everything needs it [air]" (Line 1), states Oliver at the beginning of "Oxygen." She backs up this assessment through personification. Personification is the technique of giving human action or traits to non-human or nonliving beings.
Fire is the most obvious example of personification in "Oxygen." While Oliver does not immediately grant human-like behavior to the fire, she parallels it to the speaker's lover during its introduction. The speaker moves the logs so that they can "lie more loosely" (Line 8). While doing this, their next thought immediately goes to their lover sitting "in [their] usual position" (Lines 8-9). The speaker thinks about how that position hurts the lover's right shoulder. Oliver creates a subtle connection by emphasizing both the fire and the lover's physical positions near each other. On one level, the speaker thinks about the best position for their lover, just as they think about what log positions will best help the fire. On another level, Oliver makes the fire a being that needs care.
Oliver then fully leans into personifying the fire in the seventh stanza. The fire presents the speaker with roses, as if in gratitude for their aid. After giving thanks, the fire then relaxes and continues to live. Like the lover and the speaker, it shares in "the invisible gift: / our purest, sweet necessity: the air" (Lines 23-24).
Personification underscores the poem's themes about interconnection and caregiving. The speaker's care for the fire allows it to thrive, just as the speaker's sustenance for the lover enables their survival.
A more subtle example of personification is the machine. Oliver portrays the device as "working away" (Line 4) and "merciful" (Line 3). The phrase makes the machine seem like a hard worker and a compassionate ally helping the lover get oxygen. Despite its noisiness, the speaker appreciates its efforts and respects it enough to grant it the same respect given to the fire. While the machine is inhuman, the description "lung-like" makes it adjacent to humanity and sympathetic to the couple's needs (Line 5).
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By Mary Oliver
