Mary Oliver Dualism
1. Discuss the way Oliver's nature poems can be read as political- questioning the hierarchies and dualisms underpinning Western cultures.
Mary Oliver's poems that explore nature can also be read as political as they question the dualisms and hierarchies that form strong foundations in Western cultures. Through the emergence of the patriarchy (a Western ideology) over 5000 years ago, traditional epistemological paradigms of Western society have been based on dualisms. Through patriarchal ideology the world is ordered into dualisms, or opposed pairs of concepts. In these pairs one concept is positioned to be superior to the other, and this other' is usually discriminated against or marginalised. Dualisms that exist in Western cultures are the opposed concepts of male from female, …show more content…
Mary Oliver, as a poet who celebrates the natural world and forces, challenges such Western hierarchies that have a distinct anthropocentric view. "Gannets", "Spring", "Lilies" and "Some Questions You Might Ask" explore these dualisms and criticise the hierarchies that underpin Western cultures.
The dualism of culture as opposed to nature, and the resulting hierarchy of humans believing themselves superior to nature according to Western epistemological paradigms, are criticised through Oliver's nature poems, in particular "Spring" and "Lilies". The first few lines in her poem "Lilies" displays the persona's desire to return to nature, "I have been thinking/ about living/ like the lilies". This introduction is a common element in many of her nature poems, providing an ecological answer of an interrelated community and challenging the old pernicious myth that humans are independent of nature. Through the speaker of the poem, the audience is drawn to the nature of lilies and the simplicity of their existence. When the poem reaches the sixth quatrain the contrast between
Mary Oliver's poems that explore nature can also be read as political as they question the dualisms and hierarchies that form strong foundations in Western cultures. Through the emergence of the patriarchy (a Western ideology) over 5000 years ago, traditional epistemological paradigms of Western society have been based on dualisms. Through patriarchal ideology the world is ordered into dualisms, or opposed pairs of concepts. In these pairs one concept is positioned to be superior to the other, and this other' is usually discriminated against or marginalised. Dualisms that exist in Western cultures are the opposed concepts of male from female, …show more content…
Mary Oliver, as a poet who celebrates the natural world and forces, challenges such Western hierarchies that have a distinct anthropocentric view. "Gannets", "Spring", "Lilies" and "Some Questions You Might Ask" explore these dualisms and criticise the hierarchies that underpin Western cultures.
The dualism of culture as opposed to nature, and the resulting hierarchy of humans believing themselves superior to nature according to Western epistemological paradigms, are criticised through Oliver's nature poems, in particular "Spring" and "Lilies". The first few lines in her poem "Lilies" displays the persona's desire to return to nature, "I have been thinking/ about living/ like the lilies". This introduction is a common element in many of her nature poems, providing an ecological answer of an interrelated community and challenging the old pernicious myth that humans are independent of nature. Through the speaker of the poem, the audience is drawn to the nature of lilies and the simplicity of their existence. When the poem reaches the sixth quatrain the contrast between