Breakage- “Breakage”
Mary Oliver perceives multiple forms of breakage: “How everything shines in the morning light!/The cusp of the whelk,/the broken cupboard of the clam,/the opened, blue mussels,/moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred—/and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,/dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.” The breakage related to the sea has affirmative suggestions for it epitomizes an abounding life and is appealing for this reason.
The Journey- “The Journey”
The subject executes a monumental resolution: “You knew what you had to do,/though the wind pried/with its stiff fingers/at the very foundations,/though their melancholy/was terrible.” The stiffness of the fingers suggests that the decision occasioned tension. The melancholic ambiance indicates that the decision was testing. Undoubtedly, the resolution is life-changing.
Voices- “The Journey”
Oliver writes, “But little by little,/as you left their voices behind,/the stars began to burn/through the sheets of clouds,/and there was a new voice/which you slowly/recognized as your own.” The voices that the subject disregard refer to the misgivings that could have encumbered the substantial journey from materializing. The ‘new voice’ embodies the subject’s newfound intrinsic motivation that augmented the subject’s propensity to actualize the journey.
Dreams- “Death at Wind River”
Oliver observes, “In their dreams they sleep with the moon. But mostly they drag their heels in the dust.” The dreams exemplify impracticable imaginings that contribute to the dreamers’ psychological deaths. The dust designates the reality of the dreamers’ situation that cannot be transformed by the illusions of the moon.
