When Death Comes

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1991

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Poem Analysis

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Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver (1986)

This lyric poem appeared first in the collection Dream Work. In this poem, the speaker assures the reader that they are worthy and only have “to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves” (Lines 4-5). Again, nature is a salve, and like the images of renewal in “When Death Comes,” the world in “Wild Geese” is described as one that “goes on” (Line 7). Images of community and wonder are also present as the speaker notes “whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination” (Lines 14-15). The world, like the natural elements in “When Death Comes,” calls like the geese “announcing your place / in the family of things” (Lines 17-18). The link here also includes an audio clip of Oliver reading “Wild Geese.”

“The Journey” by Mary Oliver (1986)

This poem first appeared in Dream Work but was reprinted on Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine website in conjunction with Maria Shriver’s 2011 interview with Oliver. This poem, like “When Death Comes,” deals with making a choice between living in an old way versus making a new way. Here, the speaker must leave behind those who demand too much, even though the journey is arduous and “the road full of fallen / [b]ranches and stones” (Lines 21-22). Again, nature offers clarity and comfort as “stars began to burn / [t]hrough the sheets of clouds” (Lines 25-26). The self is validated as the speaker is “[d]etermined to save / [t]he only life [they] could save” (Lines 35-36): their own.

“The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver (1990)

This lyric poem, sometimes known as “The Grasshopper,” is one of Oliver’s most famous. It was first published in The House of Light and centers around the speaker’s notation of the miraculous. They wonder about the “swan, and the black bear” (Line 2), the grasshopper, and their creator. Like “When Death Comes,” the speaker in this poem notes that “everything die[s] at last, and too soon” (Line 17) and posits how one should live one’s life. Here, the speaker notes they understand “how to be idle and blessed” (Line 14). Anticipating criticism of this idleness, they question “what else should I have done” (Line 16) and offer up a challenge to the reader: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?” (Lines 18-19). Here again, Oliver shows that, through observation of the world, we understand the human condition better as well as the worth of living engaged with it.

Further Literary Resources

“Mary Oliver Helped Us Stay Amazed” by Rachel Syme (2019)

This article is a tribute to Mary Oliver written by Syme two days after Oliver’s death. It was published in The New Yorker on January 19, 2019. Syme notes Oliver’s “dark childhood,” the building of her career, and analyzes the dismissive response many critics had to her nature poems which were written in a plain-spoken diction without a lot of esoteric leaning. Syme explains how this might be the very reason Oliver’s appeal was so wide reaching to her readers: “Hers were not poems about isolation […] Everywhere you look, in Oliver’s verse, you find threads of connectivity.” Syme notes however that this does not make her poetry banal but instead “astute, sensitive compositions.” Early in the article, Syme specifically mentions “When Death Comes” and analyzes the poem’s closing bride imagery.

“Maria Shriver Interviews the Famously Private Poet Mary Oliver” by Maria Shriver (2011)

In 2011, Shriver edited a special poetry issue for Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine. She interviewed 75-year-old Oliver, who did not give interviews often. Besides talking about her poetry, Oliver also revealed that she had had a difficult childhood in which she was sexually abused. This caused a desire for escape, and she turned to nature and poetry. Oliver mentions her favorite poet as Walt Whitman, “unless it's Rumi or Hafiz. And I do love Emerson’s poetry. And of course I named my dog Percy after Shelley. And how could anybody not love Keats.” Oliver discusses her use of the afterlife in her poetry, which she also uses in “When Death Comes,” although she doesn’t mention this poem specifically; then she goes on to talk about spirituality and the necessity of praising things and loving people, of seeing the best in the world.

“Mary Oliver: ‘I Got Saved By the Beauty of the World’” by Krista Tippett (2015)

This 2015 interview with Krista Tippett, the host of the On Being Project, Oliver discusses her childhood, the craft of poetry, and prominent themes which can be applied to “When Death Comes.” As Tippett mentions, “Amidst the harshness of life, [Oliver] found redemption in the natural world and in beautiful, precise language.” Oliver specifically talks about death in the interview, saying:

The world is pretty much—everything’s mortal; it dies. But its parts don’t die; its parts become something else. We know that, when we bury a dog in the garden and with a rose bush on top of it; we know that there is replenishment. And that’s pretty amazing. And what more there might be, I don’t know, but I’m pretty confident of that one.

This can be applied to the ideas of rebirth experienced by the speaker after confronting death in “When Death Comes.”

Listen to Poem

Hillary Rodham Clinton reads “When Death Comes” by Mary Oliver

Former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton reads “When Death Comes” during a tribute to Mary Oliver from friends and fellow writers. This event took place on September 23, 2019, at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. The time stamp for the beginning of the poem is 15:55.