18 pages • 36 minutes read
Ode to Dirt
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Symbols & Motifs
Dirt
In “Ode to Dirt,” dirt symbolizes much more than dust swept up off the floor. As Olds uses the term, dirt expands throughout the poem from “only the background” (Line 2) to the overlooked “sky” (Line 6) until the speaker comes to the deep realization that dirt is the “skin of our terrain” (Line 8) and “our democracy” (Line 9). Dirt encompasses the very foundation for which life is built upon—and for which all life on earth can survive and live.
Yet, by using the word “dirt” instead of “soil” or “earth,” Olds creates an empathy in the speaker who overlooked and devalued dirt for so long. The speaker, like most common people, failed to realize the importance of dirt. Dirt becomes a symbol for human shortcomings and lack of appreciation for the earth for without it, people would never have come into existence.
Elevating dirt to the very life force that breathes air into lungs, dirt becomes a larger symbol for earth and environmentalism. Food requires soil—dirt—in which to grow. Therefore, dirt, along with water and sun, becomes the most valuable aspect of the world.
Life
In Lines 10-11, Olds’s speaker admits, “I had never honored you as a living / equal.” The symbol of life is deeply explored in “Ode to Dirt,” beginning with Olds’s choice to use “dirt” in the title. Rather than “soil” or “earth” or even “land”—all of which are often classified as living—Olds chooses a the term dirt, which has traditionally negative connotations. Dirt is something to be cleaned up or dealt with when it sullies something clean. It is not regularly considered a life force.
However, halfway through the poem, the speaker experiences enlightenment, noting that dirt is indeed living and more so is a “living / equal” (Lines 10-11) to the speaker. Elevating the life of dirt to the same importance as a human life is a statement of its importance, honor, and necessity.
The concept of life as a symbol is taken one step further as the speaker pleads to dirt and asks dirt how humans can “serve [its] life” (Line 18). Olds imbues dirt with the ultimate honor by recognizing that not only is dirt living, but it has a “life” (Line 18). Understanding what is defined as living is essential to understanding how the poem zooms outward as the speaker gains more awareness and respect for everything beyond the self.
The Universe
Olds circuitously ends her ode, tying the physical earth to the cosmos. Like the concept of dust to dust, Olds states that it is dirt “who at the end will take us in” (Line 20) and all living things will return to where they initially began. This image evokes a larger symbol about the universe, which returns again and again throughout the poem. In Line 6, Olds claims that the dirt is like “the sky which gave [the stars] space / in which to shine” (Lines 6-7). And later, Olds hints at the Big Bang, a theory of the origins of humanity and earth: “that first exploding from nothing” (Line 16).
The symbol of the universe threads throughout the poem and establishes a larger commentary on the galaxies and earth’s placement as a planet within the universe. This symbol extends farther than “dirt.” It is about the creation of all life, all planets, all existence. Olds cinches this symbol with the final line, in which after death dirt will take everything back, “and rotate with us, and wobble, and orbit” (Line 21). The universe, which is much older than humanity and all life forms, will still contain the remains of the living as dirt, in death.
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By Sharon Olds
