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
We shake with joy, we shake with grief. _x000D_ What a time they have, these two _x000D_ housed as they are in the same body.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the complex emotions humans experience simultaneously, highlighting the coexistence of joy and grief.
Mary Oliver's quote eloquently expresses the duality of human emotions, emphasizing that joy and grief often coexist within us, each profoundly impacting our lives. The use of 'shake' symbolizes the intensity of these emotions, suggesting that they are not only feelings but experiences that can physically influence our being, illustrating the richness and depth of the human experience.
Themes
EmotionsJoyGriefDualityHuman Experience
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a reflective speech about the complexities of emotional experiences at a community gathering.
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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