Mary Oliver

Features forty new poems that continue to express the poet's fascination and love affair with the natural world.

"In Blue Iris, Mary Oliver collects ten new poems, two dozen of her poems written over the last two decades, and two previously unpublished essays on the beauty and wonder of plants. The poet considers roses, of course, as well as poppies and peonies; lilies and morning glories; the thick-bodied black oak and the fragrant white pine; the tall sunflower and the slender bean."--BOOK JACKET.

A collection of poetry and essays celebrates the birds that have played an important role in the author's life, including the owl, goldfinch, swan, hummingbird, and loon.

"A book-length poem in seven parts. Mary Oliver has fashioned this unforgettable poem of questioning and discovery, about what is observable and what is not, about what passes and what persists."--BOOK JACKET.

Mary Oliver is one of the most popular and widely honored poets in the United States. In this much-awaited collection of forty poems - eighteen previously unpublished - she writes of the silky bonds between every person and the natural world, of the delight of writing, of the value of silence. Says James Dickey, "Mary Oliver works . . . a true spell, unlike any other poet's, the enchantment of the true maker."

Mary Oliver is a young American whose first book of poetry appeared in England in 1962. The present edition contains nineteen new poems in addition to the original volume. The title poem was the winner of the first prize of the Poetry Society in America in 1962; many of the others have appeared in periodicals both here and in England. Whether Mary Oliver is writing about the Ohio country of her childhood or the London house where she lived; whether she is describing the wild creatures that live "on winter's margin" or the loneliness of children dreaming of "impossible deeds," her spirit is one of passionate affirmation"--

A collection of poetry written by Mary Oliver, exploring luminosity, along with love and death, the natural laws of the world, and other topics.

With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: of nature, of writing, of herself and those around her. She praises Whitman ("the brother I did not have") and denounces cuteness ("we are, none of us, cute".) She notes where the extraordinary is to be found ("it is more likely to stick to the risk-taker than the ticket-taker") and extols solitude ("creative work needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to"). Nature speaks to her, and she speaks to nature ("I put my face close to the lily, where it stands just above the grass, and give it a good greeting from the stem of my heart").

10th grade

A collection of seventeen essays and ten poems.

For contents, see Author Catalog.

In this stunning collection of 40 poems, Mary Oliver writes of nature and love, of the way they transform over time, and of the way they remain constant.