The Summer Day
By: Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Thesis: Oliver’s use of imagery, description, and questions to demonstrate how even the most insignificant things can be full of detail and should not be overlooked.
1. Do you think the poem has a religious tone to it? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think Oliver uses so much description on the grasshopper?
3. What words in the poem make it easy to visualize what is being said?
4. What do you think the speaker means when he or she says “I don’t know exactly what a prayer is?” Do you think this contradicts when he or she states that they know “how to be idle and blessed?”
5. Comment on the final two lines in regards to the rest of the poem.
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I loved this poem, honestly! I think that it's a great inspiration to people about how they should enjoy and live their lives to the fullest, even doing the simplest things.
ReplyDeleteYou chose a great poem, Omer. Oliver's poem although having a religious tone to it does have the power to inspire people about things, therefore it can be, I think, an inspiration to anyone irregardless of religion.
I actually did not like this poem, personally.
ReplyDeleteGreat topic, yes, but I do not like the structure of it. To me, it feels as if there is two poems here.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
Two completely different things here. She completely switches direction in the middle of the poem, and it kind of irrates my slightly perfectionest mind. :)
Great start you two. I really like, Kayla, that you are quoting directly from the poem. It keeps us close to the text.
ReplyDeleteWhat do others think? Do the two lines seem to contradict one another? Should contradiction be off limits in poetry?
I'm with Kayla on this one, it's not that great of a poem and I don;t really like it. I don't think that the line contradict each other completely but they just don't seem to fit quite right with each other.
ReplyDelete1) This poem does not really have a religious tone in the sense that she is religious, but it does more in the sense that she is sort of questioning if it's necessary or important. She also says "Tell me, what else should I have done," which sort of says to me that while she didn't really have much of a religion, she not sure if she should have had one or if it even really matters much.
2) I believe that Oliver uses so much description on the grasshopper because she's trying to show the reader(s) how precious and short life is. She's also saying, in a way, that we take things for granted and never really stop to notice or appreciate the smaller things in life, and that perhaps we should start to.
5) Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
These last two lines in the poem makes you think and wonder about what you will do and what you have done so far in your life. In regards to the rest of the poem, it sort of makes me want to at least try and realize and recognize the little things in life. It also makes me realize how much I've actually missed. I mean really, when was the last time anyone, myself included, actually took the time to just sit in a field and observe a grasshopper?
1) I think it's more of a question of religion as opposed to having a religous tone to it. "Who made the world?" The speaker questions religion and the creator of the world. I believe that it is possible the speaker does not really know her position on religion.
ReplyDelete2) I believe Oliver uses so much description on the grasshopper in order to emphasize the beauty and simplicity of life. The author wants to tell the reader to enjoy life as it is, and to just stop and admire the beauty of it.
3)Mainly the part with the desrciption on the grasshopper.
4)I do not think that these two lines contradict each other. Some people are just naturally bless without even knowing how. As well, not everyone knows how to prayn or what a prayer actually is. This again, shows that the speaker may be questioning religion. The speaker may be saying that she does not know what prayer is. It does not mean that she does not pray, just that she may not know what they are for.
5)The last two lines of the poem can get people thinking about what they want to do with their lives, and hoe much of their lives they may have already wasted. The speaker wants to get people to think about their lives and just live it they way they want to.
Wow,
ReplyDeleteI'm absolutely astonished by the quality of the analysis here... Not that I ever doubted that this group of 4U students didn't have it in them.
Anyway, I'm definitely looking for us as a group bring more voices into the conversation and to branch out into other poems now.
Kayla, Kam and Brittany, keep up the good work!