In this post, I will be talking about the poem Snow Geese, by Mary Oliver. I was not able to find the year that it was written. I immediately fell in love with this poem when I read it. It gives such a visual explanation, that I am able to see exactly what is happening, and exactly what the person who is in the poem, is seeing and feeling. The emotion in the poem comes out even in the first line of the poem - "Oh to love what is lovely, and will not last!" - which gives an energy that sets us up for the rest of the poem.

This poem is seen as long and skinny. The reason for this, is because of the pattern of the poem. It is a free verse, which means it does not necessarily rhyme, but it has a certain number of words on a line, which each mean something to the poem. Some lines have five or six words in them, while some lines only have one. These lines of specific wording and length of words controls where the author wants us to breathe while reading through it. With the metaphor of the match, I see that as being kind of a surprise delight - something you are not used to, but something that is special. Also with the metaphor of the veil, the next word is "secretly," which is what I feel helps out the word "veil," because it seems like a secret experience, a personal experience, which is beautiful and, like the poem said, is so rare.

Another thing I noticed, was that the poem type was a lyric narrative poem. I say that because for the lyric side, the author tends to use "I," throughout the poem. However, this poem tells a story, so it would also be considered a narrative. This then brings us to the "voice" of the poem. I do not think of the poem's voice to necessarily be the voice of the author, at least in her current stage of life. A young woman is who I see as the voice of Snow Geese, in how the picture comes into my head when I read the poem. I feel as though she is telling her perfect experience with nature. What she says draws you in. I think the reason I picture the "voice" as a young woman, is because the rare experience of beauty, reminds me of a different rare experience of beauty I have had in the past, watching the sun rise on a mountain top in Colorado. I like poems that I can relate to. I noticed that in much of the poem, the author uses many commas, rather than end the thought with a period, especially in the middle of the poem. In the end, however, many periods are put in. The reasoning for this seems to me that we need to pause because what is being said is extremely important. It is her reflections to what she just saw, and that she is content with the memory of the beautiful sight that she had just encountered.

This is Snow Geese:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/mary_oliver/poems/15857.html