Search results
Analysis of When Death Comes. There is a stream of consciousness feel to this poem as the speaker, presumably Oliver, considers what happens to someone after his or her life ends. The fact that there is no set rhyme or meter, and that the stanzas are all of varying lengths, adds to this feeling of the continuous flow of thoughts.
- Male
- Poetry Analyst
Oliver, Mary. “ When Death Comes .” 1991. Virginia Quarterly Review. Summary. The speaker begins this lyric poem discussing how they will eventually be greeted by death. They speculate that death might come as a “hungry bear” (Line 2), from illness, or similar to “an iceberg” (Line 8).
“When Death Comes” is one of Mary Oliver’s most remarkable poems originally published in New and Selected Poems (1992). It is a particularly impactful poem in which Oliver engages with the confusing and fearful subject of death. She does not take a conventional approach to death.
“When Death Comes” is a poem that deals with how one chooses to live once they realize they must die. There’s an almost fantastical quality to death in the opening stanzas. Death is not clinical or manmade, but natural, a next step in the journey of life.
Mary Oliver's poems are remarkably consistent in their approach. She experiments with several styles in terms of line breaks and structure and length, and takes on the big themes of life and death...
The best Verses written on her death-bed at Bath to her husband in London study guide on the planet. The fastest way to understand the poem's meaning, themes, form, rhyme scheme, meter, and poetic devices.
People also ask
What is the theme of 'when Death Comes' by Mary Oliver?
What does Mary Oliver say about death?
Who wrote 'when Death Comes' by Mary Oliver?
Who wrote the poem 'when Death Comes'?
At “12 midnight,” Mary fights against death. It waits for her and tempts her. She knows that giving in to death means giving up the pain, but it also means “To give up my own words for ...
