If you'll pardon the pun, you could call "Bearded Oaks" an idle idyll. Take a scene from nature, add two lethargic, blissed-out lovers, let them lie there for an hour not talking or moving or doing anything much but watch the evening come down around them, and there you have it: a portrait in passivity. Call it practicing for eternity, but, you know, their mothers might just call them lazy.
Questions About Passivity
- Can waiting be active or is it always passive? How might the speaker answer that question?
- The poem contrasts this moment with a more active time. What is the effect of this comparison?
- What gives this present moment its power and why?
- Why is the extended marine metaphor so effective in capturing this feeling of passivity?
Chew on This
Try on an opinion or two, start a debate, or play the devil’s advocate.
Reverie—that peaceful, reflective state of mind—is not passive at all. It's a form of activity.
Nope, sorry. Reverie—just lying around and being all blissed out—is a form of passivity. Get off the couch, yo.