Essay by Evelyn Dillon

One of Evelyn's assignments this week was to peruse our poetry collection and find a poem that moved her, then turn in a five paragraph essay about that poem. This is the poem she chose and her subsequent essay.

Everything

I want to make poems that say right out, plainly,
what I mean, that don't go looking for the
laces of elaboration, puffed sleeves.  I want to
keep close and use often words like
heavy, heart, joy, soon, and to cherish
the question mark and her bold sister

the dash.  I want to write with quiet hands.  I
want to write while crossing the fields that are
fresh with daises and everlasting and the
ordinary grass.  I want to make poems while thinking of
the bread of heaven and the
cup of astonishment; let them be

songs in which nothing is neglected,
not a hope, not a promise.  I want to make poems
that look into the earth and the heavens
and see the unseeable.  I want them to honor
both the heart of faith, and the light of the world;
the gladness that says, without any words, everything.

The poem "Everything" by Mary Oliver leaves me thinking about how wonderful this poem is. I believe she writes this poem to tell the reader what she wants each of her poems to achieve, what impact on the world she wants the poems make, and what her poems are about. I wonder if she is proud of how well her poem can speak to people of different ages and strike them with wonder and curiosity, because she should be proud. 

She writes at the beginning of her poem, "I want to make poems that say right out, plainly what I mean,". By writing this, I believe she is explaining what she would like her poems to achieve. She wants them to achieve being straight forward in what she wants to say. Also in stanza one she states, "...and to cherish the question mark,". By this, I think she is trying to say she wants to always ask questions and learn, and maybes is trying to make the reader stay curious and ask questions too. She wants to continue to wonder about the world.

In stanza two it says, "I want to write while crossing the fields that are fresh with daisies and everlasting and the ordinary grass."and with this I supposes is saying what she wants her poems to be about. I think she is saying that she wants her poems to be about her traveling and appreciating the world around her, just like she appreciates daisies and the green of the "ordinary grass". Mary wants to take her readers with her on her journeys by describing through poetry to give them images of how she sees things . I also believe she would like her poems to be different from other poets.

Mary heart fully writes in stanza three, "I want to make poems that look into the path and the heaven and the the unseeable. I want them to honor both the heart of faith, and the light of the world; the gladness that says without any words, everything."By this, I think she means she wants her poems to say what other people miss. She wants to write about the overlooked things in life. To express things people under-appreciate.

Lastly, I believe she wants others to see the world in different ways, the poem "Everything"is about how Mary Oliver wants her poems to be like and how she wants to express herself, because the poem is very straight forward and the words she uses gives imagery and feeling, thoughts and emotions to the reader. My thoughts are that the poem shows how wonderful and fantastic she wants to be able to to be as she writes about to way she sees the world. The poem she wrote, I believe, she would love for it to import the world and help people see it from a different point of view and she should be proud of this poem, because I think it has achieved what she wants it to say.