This short poem is unlike many of the poems mentioned so far in that it is not a nature poem at all, but a poem which deals in the abstract. Once again, Oliver takes us into particular moments, specific encounters with nature which surprise and arrest us. It then transpires that the speaker is referring to a specific grasshopper, which is eating sugar out of her hand at that precise moment. This is another Mary Oliver poem which begins with a question, although here is has the feel of a catechism: who made the world, the swan, the black bear, and the grasshopper, the speaker asks?
But that enriches the poem, rather than diluting its subject-matter. In many ways, this poem is as much about the poet as it is about the fish. Here, Oliver once again yokes together human feeling with her observations of nature, as the dogfish tear open ‘the soft basins of water’. So many modern nature poets have written well about fish, whether it’s Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘The Fish’ or Ted Hughes’ ‘Pike’, to name just two famous examples.
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