New and Selected Poems Summary
Mary Oliver

At the onset of her career as a poet, Mary Oliver seems almost literally to have followed in the footsteps of Edna St. Vincent Millay, whose lyrical manner influenced Oliver's early work. Both were "c... Read more

Critical Essay by Philip Booth In the title poem which begins ["No Voyage"], Mary Oliver recognizes that there is no possibility of voyaging beyond grief: in a "fallen city / On ... Read more

Critical Essay by James Dickey [Mary Oliver is good in "No Voyage"] but predictably good; one could have foretold her form reading anthologies and the poetry magazines of the day. She n... Read more

Critical Essay by Robert De Mott The news Mary Oliver reports in The Night Traveler is not the kind to be found in our daily papers, but will be familiar to anyone with an abiding interest in the net... Read more

Critical Essay by Jeff Schiff [What attracts me in Twelve Moons] is the intellectual delay it creates. Most of these poems function in such a way as to combat absolute cerebral comprehension. The ima... Read more

Kaufman is an American educator and writer. In the following excerpt, he finds Oliver's poems in No Voyage, and Other Poems to be more personal than the work of Edna St. Vincent Millay. In M... Read more

In the following review, Swanson finds House of Light to be a contemplative exploration of the paradoxes of nature to reveal the self. We have come to expect images of the natural world in Mary Oli... Read more

In the following excerpt, Sampson asserts that House of Light "yields … to everything in nature that is holy." What does it mean to have a vision in our time, "in this c... Read more

In the following review of House of Light, Howard finds that Oliver's poems "evoke the fears, sorrows, and joys of the solitary spirit." Mary Oliver's purpose is as rare... Read more

In the following excerpt, Dobyns reviews New and Selected Poems and notes the consistency in tone and an "increased precision with language" over the thirty-year period featured. Ever... Read more

In the following review, Kitchen notes a disparity between earlier poems which feature a division between nature and narrator and later poems in which the narrator becomes one with nature. Her [Oli... Read more

In the following review of New and Selected Poems, Kumin praises Oliver for "reaching for the unattainable while grateful for its unattainability." Mary Oliver is a patroller of wetla... Read more

In the following excerpt, Oppenheimer reviews New and Selected Poems and praises Oliver for maintaining an honest balance in her portrayals of nature. Mary Oliver's poetry regards nature wit... Read more

In the following excerpt, Hosmer reviews New and Selected Poems and praises Oliver's work for its simplicity and clarity. The work gathered in Mary Oliver's impressive New and Selecte... Read more

In the following review, Smith praises A Poetry Handbook for providing an incisive guide for students of poetry and notes an emphasis on storytelling and mythmaking in White Pine. I have before me ... Read more

Ostriker is an American poet, editor, and educator. In the following excerpt, she applauds the lyricism of Dream Work and notes a shift in emphasis from the natural world in Oliver's earlier wo... Read more

Gilbert is an American editor, educator, and critic. In the following review, she applauds Oliver for mining the natural world to "learn the lessons of survival." Compared to [Gail] M... Read more

In the following essay, Alford discusses the positive, life-affirming aspects that Oliver's poetry uncovers in nature. Mary Oliver is a distinctive poet in the fashionably surreal and escapi... Read more

In the following essay, McNew discusses why contemporary critics have difficulty analyzing Oliver's poetry within the framework of the romantic tradition. The special puzzle of Romanticism ... Read more