Mary Oliver pt. 2

The speaker in Mary Oliver's poem definitely has an admiration for the sea. In the poem, attention is paid closely towards small objects that eventually lead to a bigger picture. Mary Oliver says, "First you figure out what each one means by itself" (line 12). She describes "each one" with the mussels, moon snails, clam, and whelk. She gives each one a mood with a color, or a physical feature such as "the broken cupboard of the clam" (line 4).  Mary Oliver makes these objects seem more personable. They aren't just a clam or a mussel. There is almost a joyous feeling about how she describes nothing is "at all whole or shut" (line 7). It's almost like the speaker is happy about the imperfections and destruction.

There is also a realization that destruction, death are inevitable and they play key roles in life. Destruction is necessary for creation and vice versa.  "The whole story" (line 15) implies life. There was the creation of the clam and mussel so the birds can have a meal. Each individual object has its own story, but "the whole story" is how everything connects together in nature, how things work.