Mary Oliver Poem 1 - White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field

Mary Oliver Poem 1 – White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field

In Owls and Other Fantasies, page 54, Mary Oliver describes in detail the event of a white owl diving into a field in the winter to catch some small prey.  Rather than describing it as a grotesque or animalistic hunt, Oliver describes the scene as beautiful and graceful.  The magnificent creature is “like an angel” with its bright white wings which touch the ground briefly as it swoops down to capture its prey.  It’s not quite like a plane landing down, it’s more like a plane diving downwards and lightly touching the runway only to rise back upwards, never missing a beat in its airborne journey.

The skilled hunter is shown in a more positive light than I would have put it in, had I seen the event with my own eyes.  I would likely have reacted along the lines of “Yeesh, that startled me, I’m glad that I’m not that field mouse”.  Therefore, I gain a whole level of appreciation for the owl through the lens of Mary Oliver.  Nature may be swift and predatory like the owl, but it also has the elegance and wonder of something spiritual, perhaps like an angel.

What stood out most to me about this poem is the rather pensive reflection by Oliver at the end of the poem, comparing the owl to death itself.  Rather than a dark figure, Oliver likens death to the white owl, “light wrapping itself around us… as soft as feathers” as it carries our weary selves to the end of things.  The owl is already in a way a symbol of death, claiming the life of the small prey, but by observing the owl with reverence, it becomes a much less scary thing.  Usually when I think of death (thought it is many years ahead of me), I become scared, a dark foreboding or ominous entity coming to terminate my existence.  However, Oliver is able to use nature as a spiritual place to quell my nerves.  I like it much better to think of death as a peaceful end of things, the natural course of one’s life, where one is swooped away by something quick, soft, and light.  Death is still a place of mystery and great power, but we humans have the control over thinking of it in a positive or negative light.  If we must go (and one day we inevitably shall), then why should we spend the time we have on this earth fearing the end?  Life would be much better spent appreciating our time, our place in this world, and calmly preparing to welcome the white owl.

A last note – on the front page of Oliver’s Owls and Other Fantasies, the white owl is featured on the cover.  I like to think of this as intentional, as to me, the white owl is symbolic of an appreciation of life and death, and demonstrates the power in seeking nature as a place of spirituality, all elements which Oliver wishes to capture in her writing.