Wild Geese

"Sleeping in the Forest" by Mary Oliver (1978)

Much like “Wild Geese,” this poem exemplifies Oliver’s intense and mystical closeness to the natural world. An earlier work of the poet’s, here we can see a greater preoccupation with a more traditional poetry. The poem contains many more rhymes, demonstrating its closer relationship with the tradition of Romantic poetry. We can see the poet’s proximity to nature in “nothing / between me and the white fire of the stars” (Lines 7-8).

"Beside the Waterfall" by Mary Oliver (1993)

In this poem, Oliver’s well-established obsession with nature appears yet again. Unlike “Wild Geese,” “Beside the Waterfall” is a narrative poem, or a poem that tells a story of a dog eating a rabbit. The poem is still lush with natural imagery, but in naming the dog “Winston” (Line 3), there is a deeper sense of personalization and specificity absent from some of her other work.

"Fall" by Mary Oliver (1994)

“Fall” is a poem that once again explores nature, though there is notably no subject in the poem. The poem is purely observational. It follows two black oaks explaining that they “fling their bronze fruit / into all the pockets of the earth” (Lines 2-3). The poem continues to follow the fruit until it zooms out to look at the larger picture of the world.

"Breakage" by Mary Oliver (2003)

In “Breakage,” a poem written just one year before “Wild Geese,” there are clear signs of the morality and authoritative voice that Oliver employs through the use of nature imagery. It is a poem of observation; unlike “Wild Geese,” there is only an “I” in this poem. But the final line that exists as its own stanza, “Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story” (Line 15), feels similar to the language and directives of “Wild Geese.”