Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

The poem "Morning Glories" by Mary Oliver captures the essence of a commonly overlooked beauty in nature-the morning glory flower, often dismissed as a mere weed. Through her nuanced attention to detail, Oliver paints a vivid picture of these flowers, interwoven with the cornstalks and eternally resilient. In doing so, the poem offers a potent metaphor for life's simple pleasures and the existential question of value and purpose.

Oliver begins by detailing the colors of the morning glories: "Blue and dark-blue / rose and deepest rose / white and pink." These lines not only render the visual richness of the field but also contrast the riotous variety of colors with the singular purpose of the cornfield-to produce corn. The morning glories stand in this field "diligent" and "reliable," as if mocking or challenging the utilitarian aim of agriculture, making us question what it truly means to be 'useful.'

The lines "in the little / fling of their bodies their / gear and tackle / all caught up in the cornstalks" evoke the image of the morning glories as almost sportive and playful, a natural zest for life manifested in their sprawl. They're caught, yet they're free-intertwined with the serious endeavor of corn growing. It's an inadvertent rebellion against human-centric notions of utility and purpose.

The poem then shifts its focus to "the reaper," the one whose work it is to harvest the corn. For him, the morning glories are "bright random useless / year after year," yet they are inseparable from his world, woven into the "story of his life." This touches on the complex relationship between humans and nature, work and beauty, utility and aesthetics. In our quest for productivity, do we overlook the beauty that serves no purpose other than to be beautiful?

The phrase "taken with the serious tons / weeds without value" illuminates a compelling paradox. While the morning glories are "without value" in the economic sense-they are not the cash crop-their resilience and beauty give them an intrinsic value that challenges conventional wisdom. They become "humorous beautiful weeds," a joke nature plays on human seriousness, adding color and complexity to an otherwise monotonous landscape of corn.

Finally, the poem invites contemplation on what we deem 'useless' and why. These morning glories may be "weeds" from the reaper's perspective, but from another viewpoint, they are life forms fully justified in their existence, much like us with our human concerns and responsibilities. Their seeming uselessness is a reminder of the inherent worth of life in all its manifestations. Oliver's poem, then, becomes an ode to life's 'useless beauties,' asking us to consider how we assign value, urging us to find delight in the overlooked, and asking us to reassess the metrics by which we gauge worth and significance.

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