Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” begins with an assertion to the reader that some literary critics have wildly misinterpreted. A number of critical assessments of this poem suggest that it is a celebration of hedonism. Hedonism is the philosophical school of thought which essentially posits that the purpose of existence is to pursue whatever brings one pleasure. Considering the truly deranged deviance which brings some people pleasure, one can imagine why this would make the poem of questionable value if that were, indeed, the message it is putting across.
The speaker opens by declaring—absent any contextual limitations—to the reader, “You do not have to be good.” Admittedly, that does seem to carry at least a hint of hedonistic advice. If one doesn’t have to be good, that is the same as saying it is okay to be bad. The problem with this interpretation begins with the very next line which adds to this assertion by suggesting that one need not go to extremes to seek penance for sins. What follows is at the heart of this opening message: “let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.” This is the point at which any discussion of the poem being a celebration of hedonism should come to an end.
The problem is that opening line which is perhaps a little too suggestively open for some people. One can really only follow this opening line down a rabbit hole of hedonism if they read into what is simply not there. The assertion that one does not have to be good is not synonymous with one has to be bad. Nor it is an assertion that there is no difference between good and bad. The following commentary on penance and sin lends the open line context that suggests the speaker is really concerned about extremes of behavior. One can actually spend so much time trying to be good that they miss out acting naturally. Likewise, one can punish themselves unnecessarily for instinctive behavior deemed sinful by the moral police. The reference to the “soft animal of your body” is not metaphorical, it is distinctly literal. Humans, despite all the myriad intellectual superiority to animals, are still animals themselves. They are mammals just like any other mammal and subject to instinctive drives just like any other mammal. They are, however, the only mammal that applies moral judgement to that instinctive behavior.
This is what the wild geese migrating south and north every year signifies. They don’t despair over the necessity to make that long flight. If one goose should decide not to follow the flock, it is not ostracized for immorality. Flying south for the winter is not an act of goodness any more than not flying south is a sin. It may be a bad decision, but that does make it an act of badness.
This poem is, like most of the author’s poems, a celebration of the purity of nature. Acting on instinct is part of the natural world, and there is purity in the natural world. When the speaker tells the reader that they do not have to good, it is advice to look to nature. Instinctive behavior is natural but that does not mean that every decision is instinctive. Acting on instinct is killing someone because your life is being threatened. Premeditated murder is not acting on instinct. This is the difference between hedonism and what the poem is preaching. Outside of humanity, nature offers little in the way of motiveless murder.
