Our take on the 2022 A Level Unseen Poetry Comparison, comparing each poet's portrayal of nature in "Wild Geese" (Mary Oliver) and "Pelicans" (Judith Wright).
A. The poems: "Wild Geese" (Mary Oliver) and "Pelicans" (Judith Wright)
Write a critical comparison of the following poems, considering in detail the ways in which language, style and form contribute to each poet's portrayal of nature. (A Level 2022, 9509/01)
Poem A. Wild Geese by Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Poem B. Pelicans by Judith Wright
Funnel-web spider, snake and octopus,
pitcher-plant and vampire-bat and shark–
these are cold water on an easy faith.
Look at them, but don’t linger.
If we stare too long, something looks back at us;
something gazes through from underneath;
something crooks a very dreadful finger
down there in an unforgotten dark.
Turn away then, and look up at the sky.
There sails that old clever Noah’s Ark,
the well-turned, well-carved pelican
with his wise comic eye;
he turns and wheels down, kind as an ambulance-driver,
to join his fleet. Pelicans rock together,
solemn as clowns in white on a circus-river,
meaning: this world holds every sort of weather.
B. The essay
The two poems “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver and “Pelicans” by Judith Wright portray two diverging visions of nature, and in so doing, suggest two different perspectives on our own intrinsic human nature and how we should live our lives. Both poems employ avian imagery in their respective portrayals of nature, but while “Wild Geese” (Poem A) presents a natural world of pure beauty and freedom, “Pelicans” (Poem B) is much more equivocal, alluding to danger and darkness alongside this beauty, depicting nature to be wilder, more unpredictable, and ultimately unfathomable. Even as Oliver reassures us, emphasising the importance of self-love and appreciating the value of each human life, Wright adopts a warier tone, suggesting a more guarded, jaded outlook on the world.
Poem A begins with a direct assurance to its readers in “You do not have to be good”, highlighting the need for love and kindness to ourselves, just as we are. Oliver addresses us directly with the second-person pronoun “you”, imbuing her message with a personal touch to evoke a sense of comfort and reassurance. This is reinforced by the repetition of imperative sentences (“You do not have to…”), with the assertive, confident authority underscoring the reassuring quality of her message of empowerment. She rejects the idea that we need to atone for our shortcomings and flaws, from the humiliating subservience of “walking on your knees” to the biblical allusion to Jesus’ torturous journey of “a hundred miles through the desert, repenting”. As opposed to the harsh, unforgiving desert landscape, filled with the overwhelming shame and guilt of “repent[ance]”, Oliver invokes another natural image in direct contrast through “the soft animal of your body” – instead, we are something tender and even vulnerable, to be cared for and protected. As she writes, “let [your body] / love what it loves”, the repetition of “love” spotlights the focus of Poem A, comforting us and reminding us to treat ourselves with care and kindness. In fact, Oliver directly offers herself up to us as a confidante and friend, writing “Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine”. The caesurae isolating “yours'' emphasises the personalised nature of her address and her careful attention for her reader; this intimacy is punctuated by the quasi-chiastic construction of the line (“Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine”, inextricably entwining poet and reader and conjuring the closeness and solace of her proffered friendship.
Both poets also employ nature as a metaphor for their respective outlooks on life. Indeed, Poem A presents a natural world of serene, picturesque beauty, alluding to Oliver’s belief in the inherent value and beauty of human life (as discussed above). Conversely, Wright's vision of nature is much more ambivalent, suggesting a warier, more cynical approach. Oliver writes, “Meanwhile the world goes on”, situating the reader within the wider world of natural beauty and drawing a clear parallel between the concurrent inner life of the reader and the outside natural world. This outside world is one of majestic, natural wonder, from the radiance of “the sun” to the “clear pebbles of the rain”, evoking the smoothness and purity of the raindrops falling from the sky. As she lists “the prairies and the deep trees, / the mountains and the rivers”, spanning far and wide across the immensity of the natural world, their inherent greatness and beauty cannot be denied. In particular, the parallelism of the two lines creates a steady, comforting rhythm, augmenting the serenity and tranquillity of the poem’s portrayal of nature. This awe-inspiring vision of the natural world reflects Oliver’s understanding of the beauty and tenderness of the world, and indeed, of human life itself.
In stark contrast, Poem B is more ambiguous, beginning with a much darker, ominous depiction of nature. Wright writes, “Funnel-web spider, snake and octopus”, with the sibilance throughout the poetic line creating a deeply sinister, unsettling sensation, while the plosive alliteration of “pitcher-plant” is likewise menacing and vicious, all serving to emphasise Wright’s dark, dangerous vision of the natural world. The cumulative list of these natural images of predatory, violent animals and plants, from the sinister, slithering snake to the flesh-devouring pitcher-plant to the blood-sucking vampire bat, overwhelms the reader with the sheer dangers and perils of nature. The poem condemns the “easy faith” of Poem A, suggesting its naivety as the reality of nature splashes like “cold water”, rudely and sharply dispelling this myth. Wright instructs, “Look at them, but don’t linger” – here, the imperative and commanding authority does not serve to comfort, but to gravely warn the reader. Indeed, it alludes to “something” in the darkness, with the vague ambiguity of “something” suggesting a sinister, unknown quality. It seems to be sentient and even almost human-like, personified as “look[ing] back at us”, eerily “gaz[ing] through from underneath”, and even “crook[ing] a very dreadful finger”, crone-like and menacing, ominously tempting us toward whatever horrors that lurk beneath. As such, Wright depicts a much darker, uneasy vision of nature, encapsulated in the unyielding presence of the “unforgotten dark”, an ancient darkness that one cannot see and know, yet sees and knows all – it is this dreadful, foreboding underbelly that Wright warns us to stay wary and guarded against, far from the open innocence and carefree joy of Poem A.
The two poems go further to employ avian imagery to capture their respective ideas about nature and human life. For Oliver, the wild geese are a symbol of freedom and excitement, inviting us to embrace the world and life itself. The wild geese are “high in the clean blue air”, soaring freely in the vast sky above in a realm wholly untainted by the worries and burdens of mundane, menial drudgery on the ground. Oliver employs the image as a reflection of her vision for us – again directly addressing the reader (“whoever you are”) and adding a personal touch of comforting intimacy as she asserts “the world offers itself to your imagination”. The world willingly opens itself up to us, ripe with opportunity and possibility for anything we can dream of. This unbridled potential for imagination, suggesting an almost divine power for creation in each and everyone of us, reveals Oliver’s elevated view of mankind and our capacity for wonders and marvels even in our common humanity. Joyfully, this innate facility “calls to you, like the wild geese, harsh and exciting – over and over”. Harnessing the wild exhilaration of the geese in her message of openness, with their unwavering, insistent exhortations in the repetition of “over and over”, the poem implores us to embrace the world around us and shape it as our heart desires.
Conversely, Poem B adopts the image of the pelican in a more equivocal, ambivalent capacity. To some extent, the pelican is not as sinister and ominous as the natural world of the first octet. Wright does suggest some elements of freedom and hope to the pelican, not dissimilar to the wild geese of Poem A as it “sails” smoothly and majestically through the sky. Strikingly, Wright employs the metaphor of “Noah’s Ark”, famously a symbol of salvation, hope, and new, fresh beginnings after the flood. Yet it is also a loaded image, associated with the mass destruction and tragedy of the original apocalyptic flood. In the same way, the pelican is “as kind as an ambulance driver” – simultaneously a symbol of help and salvation but inextricably linked to tragedy, pain, and death. While Wright appears to temper her initial depiction of nature’s darkness and danger, she nonetheless recognises that in nature’s freedom and majesty, there lurks a dark potential for destruction and suffering that makes it all the more inscrutable and unfathomable. Indeed, the “well-turned, well-carved pelican” with its “wise comic eye” is poised with a shrewd, cryptic intelligence, again suggesting its enigmatic complexity and unknowability. As we can never fully understand nature in all its complexities and contradictions, we can only be wary and prepared for anything it might harbour for us.
In all, both poems use the natural world, and specifically, avian imagery, to reflect their respective outlooks on life. Poem A is much more optimistic, simply pointing to nature’s beauty and freedom to suggest a similar carefree, joyous lifestyle. Just as the wild geese are “heading home again”, Oliver draws a parallel to our own belonging in the world, triumphantly “announcing your place in the family of things” and unequivocally asserting our rightful position as part of the close, loving family that is the entire world. This assertion of our value and worth as a human life is sharply juxtaposed against Poem B’s ambivalence. Poem B adopts a more cynical, tempered view of the world, where even symbols of freedom and hope harbour the potential for pain and tragedy. This is captured in its final image of the pelicans as “clowns in white on a circus-river” – once again, clowns are a complex symbol, representing both mirth and hilarity, as well as an unnatural performative façade of exaggerated happiness, masking a dark potential for something profoundly sinister, echoing humanity’s anxieties surrounding uncanny reflections and distortions of ourselves. The choice of simile reinforces Wright’s own view of nature as more equivocal, with its beauty accompanied by the possibility of danger and violence making it wholly unpredictable and unknowable. While the pelicans do “rock together”, banding together in a manner not unlike Poem A’s “family of things”, Wright still cautions that “this world holds every sort of weather”, with the uncertainty of nature keeping us on our toes to brace for any possibility, foisted upon us as mere reactionary subjects of the environment which constrains and conditions us.
Note: This essay should only be taken as a sample/a reference, not as a model or an ideal archetype of an essay responding to the poetry comparison section in 9509/01. Feel free to share with your friends and discuss how you can adopt elements of good writing and engagement with literary texts. Likewise, feel free to critique this essay too. We're all here to learn :)
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