Understanding Mary Oliver's "The Wild Geese"

Mary Oliver's poem is supportive and comforting, even though she reminds us of the pain and loneliness we face in life. She starts off with a clear instruction of not having to be "good" in the way the word is perceived by most. Oliver gives us the freedom of letting our guilt fall away as she tells us that we need not hold on to -- and torture ourselves with -- the mistakes we may have made in the past. She lets us feel comfortable with the idea of letting our body "love what it loves." In a world that is full of discrimination, and also full of institutions to prevent such discrimination, Oliver promotes individuality by saying that we must follow our "animal" instincts and not tune ourselves to what the world wants us to love nor what it wants us to be. It reminds me of the need to fit in as children; of asking our parents for the latest toy in the market just because everyone else has it. If Oliver's idea of individuality was ingrained in us as children maybe we would all be different people today.

When the poet talks about sharing each others despair it sends out two opposing messages to me: On one hand, she seems to be saying that she is there for us and is willing to take the burden of our despair; she gives us a sense that the world cares. Yet, in the next line she talks of the world moving on and shows us how insignificant our problems are in the world. This can, however, be comforting too because we know that in time our despair will vanish as the world will forgive and forget. The poet uses this opportunity of the world moving on to bring in nature and show us how the sun, the trees, the geese and all of nature keeps going on in the path it has carved for itself

Toward the end of the poem, Oliver talks of loneliness and our place in the world. She once again comforts us and explains that no matter how lonely we may think we are, we have the world and our own imagination at our disposal. Her mention of our "place" in the world reminds me of the concept of double infinity. We can either feel completely insignificant and let the size of our world overwhelm us or we can feel like we are the centre of all important things. The poet advises us to find our place somewhere in the middle as we can see from her constant reminder of the massive world and our place in it.