Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Mary Oliver's "Family," the poem engages with themes of estrangement and reconciliation, creating a mysterious and emotionally complex landscape where human and animal worlds intersect. From the onset, "dark things of the wood" emerging "from their caves" set the tone, echoing tales of wilderness creatures that reside in the fringes of human existence. Yet, Oliver's poem veers away from portraying these creatures as menacing figures; rather, they are more like distant relatives, separated by domestication and culture but bound by a common origin and perhaps even a shared emotional landscape.

The creatures are described as "flexing muscle," and nibbling "the sea of grasses," and yet they only "scarcely" look into the human world "to see what we are doing." This minimal interaction captures the gap between two worlds: one domesticated, secure and bound by human culture; and the other wild, instinctual, and free. But there is curiosity on both sides, an unspoken emotional exchange underlined by the lines, "We hear them, or think we do: / The muzzle lapping moonlight, / The tooth in the apple."

The poem then transitions from this world of quiet interaction into a more intimate domestic setting with the directive to "Put another log on the fire; Mozart, again, on the turntable." Despite these comforts, Oliver notes, "still there is a sorrow / With us in the room." This sorrow serves as an emotional bridge between the human world and the world of the "dark things." It's a common ground, a shared emotional state that hints at a deeper connection between the two.

"We remember the cave. / In our dreams we go back / Or they come to visit," Oliver continues. Here, the cave stands as a metaphor for a primitive, original state, a common origin that both humans and animals have in some measure forsaken or evolved beyond. This collective unconscious, filled with archetypes of dark woods and lurking animals, reveals the idea that on some level, human beings yearn for their primal roots.

The poem concludes with the recognition that the dark things of the woods "are our brothers. / They are the family / We have run away from." The statement transforms the creatures from mysterious beings into lost relatives, and the emotional undercurrent of sorrow into a sense of loss and longing for a simpler, more instinctual existence. This final revelation challenges our notions of family and home, suggesting that true understanding and reconciliation may require us to re-evaluate our relationship with the natural world, to acknowledge and perhaps even embrace the wildness that we've long kept at bay.

In "Family," Mary Oliver crafts a narrative that is both a nocturne of separation and a hymn to unity. She nudges us to recognize the primal family we have overlooked and urges us to contemplate what it means to be truly at home in the world.

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