Themes
Humans and the Natural World
In ‘‘The Black Snake,’’ Oliver explores the con-
nections between the creatures of the natural
world and humans in several important ways.
First, the humans in the poem are driving vehicles
on a human-made road in the country, a place
that before the incursion of humans was solely the
habitat of plants, animals, insects, birds, and all
creatures of the natural world. The meeting of
human and snake, in this instance as mediated
by the truck, results in the death of the snake,
just as many meetings between humans and ani-
mals lead to the death of one or the other. This is
not to say that the creatures of the natural world
generally meet each other with anything like kind-
ness; in many poems and essays, Oliver describes
the way creatures prey on other creatures in
nature. She often writes from the perspective of
the hunted as well as the hunter. However, ‘‘The
Black Snake’’ deliberately places a creature that
humans generally find unsympathetic in the path
of a truck.
A second connection that Oliver draws bet-
ween humans and creatures occurs when she refersTOPICS FOR
FURTHER
STUDY Oliver is often compared to other well-known
poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, James Wright,
and Robert Frost. Choose one of these poets,
locate and read several of his or her poems,
and write a paper comparing and contrasting
your selected poet’s work with that of Mary
Oliver, noting characteristics such as subject,
theme, and structure.
Select and read four to five poems in Oliver’s
New and Selected Poems(1992). What are the
major images in these poems? Find illustra-
tions and photographs from a variety of
sources that seem to exemplify your selected
poems. Create a large poster board of images
and words drawn from the poems to present
to your classmates.
Working with a small group, rehearse a choral
reading (reading out loud in unison) of
Oliver’s work, including representative poems
and essays fromNew and Selected Poems,
Owls and Other Fantasies(2003), and any
other of Oliver’s collections you find appeal-
ing. Present your reading to your class.
Oliver is often compared to American tran-
scendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson.
She acknowledges her connection to Emerson
by using a quotation from him as an epigraph
to open her 2002 bookWhat Do We Know:Poems and Prose Poems. Research the tran-
scendental movement in the United States,
identifying the major poets, writers, and phi-
losophers who made up the movement. What
did the transcendentalists believe? Why do so
many critics suggest that Oliver writes in this
tradition? Write a paper in which you explore
the connections between the transcendental-
ists and Oliver.
Nature writing has grown in popularity dur-
ing the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Who are some of the best-known nature
writers? Create a multimedia presentation
or Web page on the topic of nature writing,
including examples of work, music and video
clips, links to related Web pages, explana-
tions of techniques and themes, illustrations,
and a list of works cited.
Research the geographic locations that serve
as the settings for Oliver’s work. What are the
typical flora and fauna of these regions? Are
the ecosystems of these areas endangered by
pollution, human intervention, and/or climate
change? Prepare a multimedia presentation
for your classmates that examines Oliver’s
poems from the perspective of an environmen-
tal biologist.The Black Snake