How Would You Live Then?
How Would You Live Then? - meaning Summary
Nature Beyond Material Wealth
The poem imagines a world in which nature becomes intimate, generous, and openly communicative: birds advise, bees provide honey, and water and stars seem alive. Its repeated questions ask how a person’s life might change after recognizing this abundance. Oliver contrasts money and gold with the greater value of attention, wonder, and the ordinary natural world, especially its patient movement toward light.
Read Complete AnalysesWhat if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks flew in circles around your head? What if the mockingbird came into the house with you and became your advisor? What if the bees filled your walls with honey and all you needed to do was ask them and they would fill the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just past your bedroom window so you could listen to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if the stars began to shout their names, or to run this way and that way above the clouds? What if you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw that the silver of water was brighter than the silver of money? What if you finally saw that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day and every day—who knows how, but they do it—were more precious, more meaningful than gold?
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