Essay Questions

What does “The Hermit Crab” communicate about reclusive humans?

Loners have the predisposition to fold themselves in their abodes. They dodge interrelating with other humans as evidenced in the crab that “it turned away/ and frisked up its brawny forearms/ so quickly.” The frisking is a communication, which implies that the crab is not ready to intermingle with the speaker. The line, “or almost a face” implies the hermits’ faces are predominantly unfamiliar.

How does the imagery of metals augment the abundance of fall in “Fall”?

First, Mary Oliver writes, “the black oaks/ fling their bronze fruit/ into all the pockets of the earth.” The bronze fruits are conspicuous for they are disparate from the ‘black oaks.” The capacity of a ‘black oak’ to birth a ‘bronze fruit’ is a spectacular episode that magnifies the grandness of fall. Additionally, the oak trees “fill the eaves/ the bottom line/ of the old gold song/ of the almost finished year.” The ‘golden song’ amplifies the lushness of fall. Even though the fall signposts the impending dissolution of the year, its fullness does not contract.