The first thing that hit me as I read “Oread” was the imagery involved. I conjured up this image in my mind of an angry sea. A sea to be respected. But as I study this poem, I’m a little confused. I feel like it could be applied to both a sea and a forest. All of the action words, the strong words sound like something that would describe a sea. Words like “whirl”, “splash”, “hurl” “cover” & “pool”.
On the other hand, a lot of the nouns and more subtle words suggested a forest by using words like “pointed pines”, “green” & “fir”. I have a hard time seeing how “pines” and “fir” could have anything to do with a sea. I looked up both words in the dictionary and both almost exclusively dealt with the evergreen tree family. I can see this poem talking about a forest, but it’s still a stretch for imagination. I don’t usually think of a forest as “whirling up”. The only thing I can think of is when pines sometimes lose their needles. This poem could be an angrier take on that. The needles do tend to “splash your great pines on our rocks, hurl your green over us, cover us with your pools of fir”.
Although I hate the fact that I cannot seem to figure this poem out, I love the words in it. Regardless of whether I picture the poem being about a sea or a forest, it gives off this crisp, pristine image of nature. It’s a very beautiful, untamed image.
Its interesting to compare the poem to both a sea and a forest, but that is the thing with poems or stories it can take your imagination anywhere. The descriptions really entice you too keep reading more in the story. I think the descriptions of whirl and hurl do remind you more of an ocean than a tree, which I would describe as stiff and straight.
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