Figurative Language-

Simile and Metaphor

Imagery
Language-lexical cluster
Music and Sound
When Death Comes
Structure - Enjambment
Anaphora - Repetition

1 When death comes

Shows inevitability
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse Coins have value
to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
5 when death comes
like the measle-pox Disease - Can take life sooner than expected
Speaker shows
some fear and when death comes
respect for Cold and unexpected and threatening.
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
death. First SHIFT to show Speaker’s curiosity!
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
10 what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness? Unknown and cold but a COTTAGE
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood, Anaphora and Polysynteton show many
Speaker looking thoughts of speaker and her willingness
At the world NOW and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
to think about life and death!
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
15 and I think of each life as a flower, as common Flowers are precious and joyful and
temporary…life human life….like all life.
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence, Music is to be celebrated.. each life is a
song.
and each body a lion of courage, and something
20 precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say all my life Philosophy of life. Married to
Speaker looking I was a bride married to amazement. amazement….Marriage=Commitment Love
Back at her life
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder List of what she does NOT want.
25 if I have made of my life something particular, and real. Reminder how how she WANTS to live
without regret and fear.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument. Notice how DEATH is not in the phrase
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world. “WHEN IIT’S OVER”.

- Mary Oliver (1992)

Central Message: Speaker shows respect for death but uses the inevitability of death to consider how to live life
with amazement and contemplation and wonderment.

Key Poetic Moves:

Metaphor Simile Personi cation Anaphora Tone. First Person POV

Diction Lexcical Field Enjambment Absolutes Motif of Time
Nature Imagery Symbols of Death Alliteration Sibilance