Question

In the poem 'Song for the Turtles in the Gulf,' what does the oil spill represent?

(1 point)
Responses

The necessary cooperation between industry and people.
The necessary cooperation between industry and people.

The natural cycle of life and death in the ocean.
The natural cycle of life and death in the ocean.

The destructive force of human actions on nature.
The destructive force of human actions on nature.

The temporary challenges that wildlife often faces.
The temporary challenges that wildlife often faces.
Song for the Turtles in the Gulf By Linda Hogan
We had been together so very long,

you willing to swim with me

just last month, myself merely small

in the ocean of splendor and light,

the reflections and distortions of us,

and now when I see the man from British Petroleum

lift you up dead from the plastic bin of death,

he with a smile, you burned

and covered with red-black oil, torched

and pained, all I can think is that I loved your life,

the very air you exhaled when you rose,

old great mother, the beautiful swimmer,

the mosaic growth of shell

so detailed, no part of you

simple, meaningless,

or able to be created

by any human,

only destroyed.

How can they learn

the secret importance

of your beaten heart,

the eyes of another intelligence

than ours, maybe greater,

with claws, flippers, plastron1

Forgive us for being thrown off true,

for our trespasses2

in the eddies of the water

where we first walked.



1. the part of a turtle’s shell that forms the underside

2. trespasses is a synonym for sins; lines 26-27 allude to a Christian prayer that includes the line “forgive us our trespasses”

Answer 1

The destructive force of human actions on nature.

(The poem links the oil, a man from British Petroleum, and a plea for forgiveness, showing human-caused harm to wildlife.)