Week 48: College Reading and Writing: Mary Oliver

Week 48: College Reading and Writing: Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver: Annotating, Summarizing, Analyzing, Imitating

to annotate: to make notes on something to help you understand it better

to summarize: to put something in your own words

to analyze: to consider a question on the text, providing supporting examples from the text

to imitate: to create an original piece of writing based on something you have read

Exercise: Read and annotate

1. Read the poem out loud and underline any words you need to look up

2. Write any questions you have in the margins, or in your notebook

3. Put tricky parts into your own words in notes in the margins, or in your notebook

Exercise: Questions for Comprehension of the poem

1. Why does the poem start with “[y]ou do not have to be good” (Oliver)? What’s the effect?

2. What does the speaker say about “repentance” and “despair” (Oliver)?

3. What “calls to you like the wild geese” (Oliver)?

Exercise: Summarize the poem

Write a paragraph summarizing the poem with quotations, in-text citation, and a Work Cited Page.

Example too-short summary, incorporating quotation and in-text citation:

Brenda Hillman’s poem “The Family Sells the Family Gun” tells the story of siblings getting rid of their father’s gun after “his ashes...were lying” (87). The speaker questions what it means to own and get rid of a gun in America, saying, “[w]e couldn’t take it to the cops even in my handbag” (Hillman 88).

Work Cited Page (for today’s poem)

Oliver, Mary. “Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.” Poem of the Week, Shanendoah, 2018, https://shenandoahliterary.org/blog/2017/02/upon-asking-the-cashier-at-kroger-to-scan-that-old-tattoo-of-a-barcode-on-my-forearm-by-anna-journey/.

Exercise: Write a Response

What role do the wild geese play in the poem? Why are they important? What is this poem saying about the human experience? What does Oliver value? Do you agree with Oliver’s values? Why or why not?

Exercise: Analysis

Question for analysis: The poem begins with declarative statements; what effect does this have on the poem? How do they add to the meaning of the poem? Does Oliver’s use of nature imagery help to clarify her point? Why or why not? Closely examine the declarative statements and the images in this poem, then write an analysis where you explore why you think the poet balances images and declarative statements.

Exercise: Imitation

Take your free-write about any animal or animals and turn it into a poem. Add your list of three declarative statements. Use elements from Oliver’s poem that you admire to make your own poem stronger.

Homework:

           

1. Summary of Poem     
2. Write a Response       
3. Analysis of Poem                   
4. Imitation of Poem

About this class:

Your notebooks belong to you; you can write first drafts in them, and make notes for yourselves. To turn in homework, revise your work in a blue book or sheets of paper you can get from your instructor. In this class, you are welcome to submit homework for a grade. If it’s not strong enough to earn an A, I’ll give you some comments to help you revise it, and let you do it over again. You have as many chances as you want to complete and perfect the work in this class, and you are welcome to do more than one week’s worksheet for homework at a time; ask me for sheets you’ve missed. Students who complete 15 weeks of graded assignments and a longer paper can qualify for college credit. When you get close to completing 15 weeks, I’ll help you get started on your longer paper.

Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

          love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountain and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.