An Analysis Of Mary Oliver's Poem Just As The Calendar Began To Say Summer

Mary Oliver’s utilization of tone in the poem, “Just as the Calendar Began to Say Summer”, displays the speaker’s reluctant feelings towards the forthcoming school year, and a deep nostalgia to be free in nature, away from the mechanical routines and the structured classrooms that are forced upon them.
There is a stark contrast between nature and industrialism, conveying the speaker’s own visions and aids to the tone. In the first stanza of the poem, the speaker’s tone is displayed using diction. The beginning of the poem opens with the speaker “[spending] all summer forgetting what [they’d] been taught” (3). This quote suggests that the speaker intentionally shuts school out, due to the mechanized school system and standards placed on the

The tone changes from nostalgia, to reluctantcy. In stanza 3, the speaker “healed somewhat, but “summoned”(7) back to the chalky rooms and the desks.”(7-8) The diction here, suggests that school is damaging, and summer is rejuvenating. When the author is, “Summoned”(7) to school this term’s definition is to authoritatively call on someone to be present, and directly connects to a negative connotation of going to school. Industrialism is then introduced in the the sixth line, where “machines and oil and plastics and money and so forth.” assists to the negative standards and mechanical lifestyle brought upon. There is a strong connection between the damages of society, and the damages of school that is gained. The repetition of “and”(4-6) indicating the indifferent feelings acquired towards the standards of having “diligence,”(4) how to be “modest, and useful, and how to succeed.”(5) perceives to be an example of a mechanized routine in school, and shows the standards that are set for the speaker. In this section of the poem, there is a firm reluctance tone through diction and imagery, that support against the school system and industrialism in which the speaker