When Death Comes Analysis

Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Never fear, Shmoop is here. Check out our...

Free Verse"When Death Comes" is a free verse poem. That is, it doesn't follow any particular formal structure of rhyme or meter. Still, there is a definite rhetorical structure: 'When _____, I want...

Our speaker, the way we picture it, is a thoughtful woman who lives in a rural area. Although death is the major focus of the poem, and death is clearly connected to the body, our speaker doesn't r...

In a general sense, this poem has a rural feel. It seems to take place somewhere where you might occasionally encounter a bear, where the locals would know which flower is a field daisy, and where...

This poem pulls together a lot of threads, in terms of tone. It's like our speaker has pulled us aside to confide her personal philosophy on life and death. We can tell she's serious, but the way s...

The title of this poem is short and simple. It alerts us to the poem's concerns (i.e., death and thoughts springing from the arrival of death), it's just a few words, and it's the same as the first...

"And therefore I look upon everything"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 take...

(2) Sea LevelThis poem covers some big topics and packs a lot of thought and wisdom. Yet it also manages to be wonderfully clear and accessible.

By our count, Mary Oliver has published 28 books. About 22 of those are books of poetry (it's a little hard to count, since a few books are a mix of poems and essays). We're impressed.Mary Oliver a...

GA mention of brides and bridegrooms might imply sex, but this poem is pretty non-sexual in its passion. Though we do get a glimpse of shoulder blades (scandalous!).