Liam Meldung - Week 1 - Pick a Poet (Mary Oliver) - "The Mango"

        

                                                  

"The Mango" - Mary Oliver

        When I went through the list of all the poems Mary Oliver wrote I was drawn to this title for some odd reason. I guess I just really like mangoes and I couldn’t help but want to read this poem and share it with the rest of you. I went into reading this poem thinking that it would be all about mangoes, and I guess it was, but the author used mangoes as a way to take a deeper look into today's society.

        The poem is describing, what I think is, a dinner party of some sort. Everyone is joining in on the delicious dinner and then the mangoes come out for dessert. Everyone is given some and then it gets interesting. The poet starts to describe the conversation being had, in very few words, around her. Mary writes that “all through the sweetness [she] heard voices, men and women talking about something - another country, and trouble.” The delicious taste of the mango becomes less and less as the conversation shifts to the state of the world in some places. They continue to discuss the world problems as the poet eats the mango she is so obviously obsessed with. It seemed like this was the turning point for the whole poem. It started off all nice with getting the mango and the dinner, but then at this point everything starts to change. The discussion is changing the main point of the poem, the mango suddenly becomes less important and the discussion of what is happening in the world becomes more noticeable. 

        When I read this I couldn’t help but think about the summer reading, How to Read Literature Like a Professor. It reminded me of the chapter about eating with people. I felt like at this dinner the people invited are there to share with each other a nice meal. There they begin to talk about things that maybe they wouldn’t talk about in front of everyone. They trust the people they are with to say their opinions about certain things. That was just me connecting the poem to the summer reading for the sake of connecting the poem to the summer reading.

        The overall idea of the poem, based on my interpretation, is that the mango symbolizes sweetness, maybe relating it to innocence and then it can be ruined by the things that happen in the world. The poet is just trying to enjoy her mango, not thinking about anything but how amazing it is, but that’s ruined by the political and upsetting conversation her friends are having. The innocence is being taken away slowly until the mango isn’t even mentioned anymore, the innocence is all gone.





Comments

  1. BenSeptember 6, 2022 at 1:18 PM

    I loved this interpretation of the poem. From the sound if it, I think this poem might have something to do with the concept of "shut up and eat your damn mangoes" from the point of view of individuals sitting around the dinner table not being able to influence global catastrophes. Instead, everyone should simply enjoy their mango and enjoy spending time with others.

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