“Owls” Prompt - 9
Mary Oliver’s perspective of nature is a juxtaposition of danger and beauty. Her
almost gruesome images of killed prey are placed side by side with the aesthetic vision of
summer fields, revealing her belief that danger and beauty cannot exist without one
another, that they run hand in hand with each other in an endless cycle. In the face of this
ever present display, Oliver’s overwhelmed response to nature is revealed. Oliver
juxtaposes the ideas of imminent danger and becalmed beauty to put forth her feeling of
being conquered and completed by nature.
The passage from “Owls” begins with a description of a predator in the form of a
great horned owl. Oliver is frightened by the owl’s lust for power and prey, and she
shows this fear through phrases like “swift and merciless” and “razor-tipped toes”. Yet,
despite any fear on her part, Oliver is not repelled, but rather continues to approach it.
This choice represents Oliver’s complex but complete understanding of nature as an
excessive but “immutable force”. She is enthralled by the mystery behind the owl’s terror
and even compares this terror to her own life.
Oliver next presents the idea of beauty. While listening to the owl’s song, Oliver
is reminded of summer fields and poppy flowers. This contrast of images, the predator’s
song versus the beauty of the fields, is also indicative of Oliver’s complex response to
nature, a response so complex that it finishes her and fills her with a terrifying happiness.
Oliver’s feelings about nature are wraught with emotion and depth. Her
appreciation for nature has grown, for the last sentence states that not long ago, all she
could do was sit and stare at flowers, rather than become overcome with their power. Her
juxtaposed ideas, the fact that she begins the passage with dangerous images soon
followed by pleasing ones, states her belief that nature seduces the world into
approaching, and if an individual is to truly appreciate nature’s complexity, the individual
must look past the danger and find the beauty within.