Beauty from Pain

“He has sent me to […] provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes” (Isaiah 61:3 in the NIV Bible). Beauty and hope are found among the sorrows and loss in Mary Oliver’s poem “In Blackwater Woods,” a poem which inspires the reader to value life, and to confront the continuous pain of losing someone.

Blackwater Woods is a secluded shelter where the speaker and the reader are surrounded by trees “turning / their own bodies / into pillars of light” and “giving off the rich / fragrance of cinnamon / and fulfillment” (82). Oliver’s description and personification help the reader be comforted by the atmosphere of the poem. The tone of the poem is reassuring as well, supported by the presentation of the speaker as a mentor giving advice to the reader. The reader feels like he or she is being spoken to because the speaker says things like, “To live in this world / you must be able to do three things” (83). Mary Oliver wants the reader to take in the lessons about life, not just enjoy reading them.

Oliver continuously uses enjambment, making the themes of her poem everlasting; she wants to show that loss is something people deal with infinitely. The enjambment also shows that not everything has an end; just because someone is gone from you does not mean the memory vanishes. Loss and recovery from it are re-occurring parts of the cycle of life. That is also what the speaker means by saying the reader must do three things “[t]o live in this world” (83). Loss is something everyone on Earth has to deal with.

Yet loss’s “other side is salvation, whose meaning none of us will ever know” (83). Oliver is making us aware of the two sides of loss—losing someone, and being the one lost. We cannot understand what it is like to be the one lost to others because then we wouldn’t be here anymore. “In Blackwater Woods” reminds us of our mortality. When the speaker notes how “every pond, / no matter what its / name is, is / nameless now,” (82) he or she means that names are mortal. People are the ones who give names to things like ponds, but it was there without a name, and it will continue without one; ponds, like losses, are everlasting.

Since loss, and the pain from it, lasts forever, it is difficult to simplify it for our comprehension. That is why losses can be “fires and black rivers” (82). While it seems impossible for something to be both fire and water, what Oliver is saying is that loss covers all ranges of emotion and power. Fire and water are two of the most destructive elements on Earth, but they also cleanse and purify. When we move past the way loss damages the spirit, we can see the beauty around us. The speaker urges the reader “to love what is mortal; / to hold it […] knowing / your own life depends on it; / and, when the time comes to let it go, / let it go” (83). Mary Oliver wants us to appreciate life; while loss is an ever-present struggle, we should not always dwell on it. It’s by cherishing the moments with those we love that we can get through the losses.

Maybe that is why “Every year” (82) the speaker has the same revelation about life. After everything the speaker has experienced, it is what he or she learned about life, love, and los that is the most important. The poem ends by repeating the line “to let it go” (83). The speaker does this not only to emphasize the point to the reader, but to remind himself or herself the true value, and the true beauty, of his or her words.