Otherwise

One of the key thematic concerns of “Otherwise” relates to the appreciation of the present moment despite the inevitability of death. Because “one day [. . .] it will be otherwise” (Lines 25-26), the speaker finds it essential to be grateful for every passing beauty. The poem lists the best parts of the speaker’s day, no matter how commonplace: The milk is “sweet” (Line 5), the peach “ripe” (Line 6), and the woods are made of “birch” (Line 10). The speaker communes with their loved ones as the speaker experiences the present world, tallying what is beautiful in their surroundings despite the grief and death they “know” (Line 25) will occur. Eventually all the images the speaker collects hang together, like the “paintings / on the walls” of their bedroom (Line 21-22), offering a comforting retrospective against the coming end.

“Otherwise” is a poem about taking nothing for granted in life. From personal experience, the poet knows that accident, disease, and death can disrupt the routines of daily life, and Kenyon’s poem comments on the inevitability of a surprising turn toward the worse. The status quo of the speaker’s life—rising, eating, working, sleeping—cannot carry on without the interfering thought that it “might have been otherwise” (