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
I'm going to die one day. I know it's coming for me, too. I'll be a mountain, I'll be a stone on the beach. I'll be nourishment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the inevitability of death and the idea of becoming one with nature afterlife.
Mary Oliver's quote explores the acceptance of mortality and the transformation that comes with it. By comparing herself to a mountain, a stone on the beach, and nourishment, she suggests that even in death, we continue to contribute to the world and exist in new forms. It conveys a sense of peace and connectivity with nature, emphasizing that life does not end but rather transitions into a different state.
Themes
DeathNatureTransformationMortalityExistence
In practice
Example use cases
In a eulogy reflecting on someone's life, one might say this quote to highlight their continued presence in nature.
More from Mary Oliver
All quotes βAt 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.
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I know the sag of the unfinished poem. And I know the release of the poem that is finished.
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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.
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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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