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
And there you are on the shore, fitful and thoughtful, trying to attach them to an idea — some news of your own life. But the lilies are slippery and wild—they are devoid of meaning, they are simply doing, from the deepest spurs of their being, what they are impelled to do every summer. And so, dear sorrow, are you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the struggle to find meaning in life's experiences, comparing that search to the natural and instinctive actions of lilies.
Mary Oliver's quote conveys the idea that while humans often grapple with the pursuit of meaning and understanding in their lives, nature, represented by the lilies, exists and acts without the need for meaning. The lilies symbolize an inherent wildness and simplicity in existence, performing their natural roles without anxiety or existential questioning. In this way, Oliver juxtaposes human sorrow with the lilies' instinctual being, suggesting that we, too, are driven by forces beyond our understanding, and that acceptance can lead to peace.
Themes
MeaningNatureExistenceSorrowAcceptance
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about finding purpose in life.
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
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.
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
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