The poem Entering The Kingdom was appealing to me because of the title of the poem. A kingdom is something of value, respect, and treasure. Mary Oliver treats nature as her kingdom. I initially thought this poem would be about interacting with a dangerous animal, like a lion or bear. Still, the idea of a kingdom of crows sparked some interest because I have seen hundreds swarm together in movies and real life. Crows typically represent sadness or disappointing emotions, and I thought this poem captured these ideas well…but with a twist.
Crows have the reputation of a scary bird as they are all black and look almost menacing. Therefore, I liked how Mary Oliver swapped the perspectives and displayed the crow’s fear of her. She writes the crows thinking, “Possibly dangerous”. I think she is trying to convey to her audience that other animals, like birds, have an analytical ability and fear us. The tense tone in the poem contradicted many of her other poems. Humans are painted in a hostile and alarming sense. We are what nature is scared of. This notion makes sense as humans have ultimately negatively impacted the environment with fossil fuels, extreme waste, and overpopulation, to name a few.
My favorite quote from this poem is, “To learn something by doing nothing.” I empathize with this quote because nature can sometimes entail doing nothing to gain knowledge. I think about my experiences in nature and how sometimes I would sit on a bench, look at the environment around me, and learn so much. I believe using nature as a source of education can benefit us in understanding our world and our surroundings. The author wants us, as a collective, to do nothing with nature so we can learn as a society. Oliver continues to express that the crows “…know me for I am…No eater of leaves.” I think this quote is to show that the crows do fear humans because of the damage we have done. The crows view us as outsiders of nature, an entity that doesn’t belong…
Overall, the poem displays a perspective that humans are so far removed from nature that we never are entirely a part of the “kingdom” that nature is…
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