Saint Francis and the Sow | Critical Essay
In a powerful defense of poetry’s nobility, the contemporary American poet, Mary Oliver, wrote: “No poet ever wrote a poem to dishonor life, to compromise high ideals, to scorn religious views, to demean hope or gratitude, to argue against tenderness, to place rancor before love, or to praise littleness of soul. Not one. Not ever.” To demonstrate the truth of Oliver’s views, one need look no further than Galway Kinnell’s marvelous and poignant poem, “Saint Francis and the Sow,” from his 1980 collection Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. This poem—just as Oliver claimed all...
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