I try to be good but sometimes a person just has to break out and act like the wild and springy thing one used to be. It's impossible not to remember wild an want it back.
Mary OliverRead
For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the essential role of poetry in providing comfort and sustenance to those in need.
Mary Oliver's quote highlights the profound impact that poetry can have on human life. She compares poems to vital resources like fire, ropes, and bread, suggesting that poetry serves as a source of warmth and rescue for those who are emotionally cold or lost. Through her metaphor, Oliver argues that poetry is not just a collection of words but a necessary element of human existence, capable of bringing solace and nourishment in difficult times.
Themes
PoetrySustenanceComfortNecessityHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
During a poetry reading at a local café, I would share this quote to express the importance of poetry in our lives.
More from Mary Oliver
All quotes →At the time I was growing up, literature was involved with the so-called confessional poets. And I was not interested in that. I did not think that specific and personal perspective functioned well for the reader at all.
Mary OliverRead
I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished.
Mary OliverRead
If I have any lasting worth, it will be because I have tried to make people remember what the Earth is meant to look like.
Mary OliverRead
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light.
Mary OliverRead
The god of dirt came up to me many times and said so many wise and delectable things, I lay on the grass listening to his dog voice, frog voice; now, he said, and now, and never once mentioned forever from, One or Two Things
Mary OliverRead
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