The Honey Tree Mary Oliver Analysis

The Honey Tree
Words possess many different meanings. The context of the sentence and how the words are used help to create an experience in the reader. In Mary Oliver's, The Honey Tree, she structures her poem in a way that punctuates on the action in the text. Oliver uses the multiple meanings of words to help create a more vivid picture.
The beginning of the poem one word stands out more so than others. In line 2, 3 and 5, the word ate can be interpreted literally, as if she physically ate bodies of bees or the different parts of the tree. I believe that she uses this term allegorically. The word ate can be used as a means of consumption or to take in. Oliver does not really mean that she took bites out of the tree, but she absorbed the

beauty of nature that surrounded her. As she climbed the tree, she was so overwhelmed by what she sees that she is overjoyed and wants it to be fully ingrained.
The line Later, maybe, I'll come here only sometimes and with middling hunger is another example of allegory. Oliver does not refer to physical or bodily hunger, but a longing. At that moment, she had wanted nothing more than to fully absorb the scene, but once she was done, her hunger fulfilled, the need and longing dissipate. Now it will only need to be satisfied occasionally, and not with such fierceness.
Oliver uses words and their multiple uses to offer various interpretations of the poem. The beauty of language and literature is that each line or story can have a different meaning for each person. And with different perspectives comes different opinions, which makes life more interesting.