Last year, my English teacher showed us around a dozen poems to briefly discuss with the class. In this set was “Wild Geese”, and my class starting analyzing it by talking about the surface level aspects of the poem. Many people called it simple and straight-forward, and yet I believed it to be the opposite. Oliver starts by addressing the reader when she writes “You do not have to be good.” This personal tone of her words works to make readers feel understood as the speaker reminds readers that they do not have to go on their knees repenting for every bad thing they’ve done. The poem continues to remind readers that life moves on despite struggle. This could be the extent for analysis, yet I find the addition of animals in this poem to be an outlet for a deeper message. The speaker writes about the wild geese who, despite all, continue to fly back and head home again. Oliver continues to remind readers that the world “offers itself to your imagination” and calls to you like the wild geese, “harsh and exciting”. Here the speaker insinuates that all humans have a home to return too just like the wild geese, although this home is not known and not yet reached. The poem ends with describing how the world calls “over and over announcing your place in the family of things”. I find this line (and the rest of this poem) to be incredibly comforting, and its ambiguity allows for all readers to find comfort in these words despite getting different messages from the poem. The subject shift is very interesting, and works to remind readers to not worry about the minute details of life and to also remember that all living creatures have a true “home” in this world that they are heading too.