Blue Pastures [Paperback]

Mary Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 10, 1995

With consummate craftsmanship, Mary Oliver has fashioned fifteen luminous prose pieces: on nature, writing, and herself and those around her. She praises Whitman, denounces cuteness, notes where to find the extraordinary, and extols solitude.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For better and for worse, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Oliver is a Romantic?capital R. She is enamored of nature, not the cute nature of spring flowers/ prancing fawns but Edmund Burke's awe-ful nature, with its "scream of the owl, which is not of pain and hopelessness and the fear of being plucked out of the world, but of the sheer rollicking glory of the death-bringer." Less fortunately, she also buys into romanticism's egomania: "My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth... My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o'clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all." As in her previous prose volume, A Poetry Handbook, Oliver meditates on her hard-to-define art and goes on to consider her inspirations?Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Muir, Walt Whitman. But the best part of the book is Oliver's plein-air poetizing, consisting of tidbits almost all jotted down "somewhere out-of-doors": in her partial observations of nature ("Just at the lacey edge of the sea, a dolphin's skull"), her exhortations ("You must not ever stop being whimsical") or an evocative list ("Molasses, an orange, fennel seed, anise seed, rye flour, two cakes of yeast"), readers catch the first whiffs of poetry.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The poet's "responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely," writes the peerless poet Oliver. "It does not include mustard, or teeth." In this gathering of gorgeous short pieces, Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive (LJ 2/15/83), returns to the realm of the extraordinary and the mysterious?the realm of poetry?which she finds in nature. She ponders the terrible nightly hunt of the horned owl and relishes the terror that "is naturally and abundantly part of life, part of even...my own." She watches the dashing of small fry in a pond and wonders, "which one am I?" In "My Friend Walt Whitman" she pays homage to "the brother I did not have" whose poetic voice liberated her own; and in "Steepletop" she meditates on the great sad love affair between Edna Millay and George Dillon. Oliver demonstrates that she is not only an avid student of poetry but a great teacher: "The Poet's Voice" is a defense of the value of meter and a gentle rebuke to the confessional school. This transcendent collection is Oliver's joyful sharing of her love of her craft; not to be passed up.?Amy Boaz, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; 1 edition (November 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156002159
• ISBN-13: 978-0156002158
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #579,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A private person by nature, Mary Oliver has given very few interviews over the years. Instead, she prefers to let her work speak for itself. And speak it has, for the past five decades, to countless readers. The New York Times recently acknowledged Mary Oliver as "far and away, this country's best-selling poet." Born in a small town in Ohio, Oliver published her first book of poetry in 1963 at the age of 28; No Voyage and Other Poems, originally printed in the UK by Dent Press, was reissued in the United States in 1965 by Houghton Mifflin. Oliver has since published many works of poetry and prose. As a young woman, Oliver studied at Ohio State University and Vassar College, but took no degree. She lived for several years at the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in upper New York state, companion to the poet's sister Norma Millay. It was there, in the late '50s, that she met photographer Molly Malone Cook. For more than forty years, Cook and Oliver made their home together, largely in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where they lived until Cook's death in 2005. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Oliver has received numerous awards. Her fourth book, American Primitive, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984. She has also received the Shelley Memorial Award; a Guggenheim Fellowship; an American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Achievement Award; the Christopher Award and the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for House of Light; the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems; a Lannan Foundation Literary Award; and the New England Booksellers Association Award for Literary Excellence. Oliver's essays have appeared in Best American Essays 1996, 1998, 2001; the Anchor Essay Annual 1998, as well as Orion, Onearth and other periodicals. Oliver was editor of Best American Essays 2009. Oliver's books on the craft of poetry, A Poetry Handbook and Rules for the Dance, are used widely in writing programs. She is an acclaimed reader and has read in practically every state as well as other countries. She has led workshops at various colleges and universities, and held residencies at Case Western Reserve University, Bucknell University, University of Cincinnati, and Sweet Briar College. From 1995, for five years, she held the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair for Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from The Art Institute of Boston (1998), Dartmouth College (2007) and Tufts University (2008). Oliver currently lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts, the inspiration for much of her work.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars M. Oliver speaks the absolute truth in only "A Few Words"., August 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Pastures (Paperback)

Whatever you believe to be the truth you must read this book. Mary tugged at my heart so intently that I broke down and cried. She seems to possess a consciousness that eludes much of humanity and I wonder how did we let that happen. Mary offers no answers, but she stimulates thought and hopefully her writing will lead her readers to perhaps even conscious thought. I will read this book over and over and over again

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carefully chosen, wild and precious words, May 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Blue Pastures (Paperback)

Prior to reading this book, I had already read several volumes of Mary Oliver's poetry, as well as a book of her nonfiction. So I knew what to expect: beautifully concise language, lovely descriptions, and some insightful observations about the natural world and about life. What struck me most about this book was its similarity to the nonfiction of Annie Dillard, another of my favorite writers who deal with both the natural world and the craft of writing. Certain essays in this book reminded me of "Teaching a Stone to Talk," which is another book remarkable for its economical prose. I enjoyed learning some of Oliver's philosophies about the purpose of a writer, and I appreciated her observations about writers who inspired her, particularly Edna St. Vincent Millay and Walt Whitman. She writes well about everything from owls to deer to poetry, and it all comes across as effortless and seamless (though she shows us that the process itself is anything but smooth). I loved this book, although I would say that the best introduction to Mary Oliver is through her poetry: I recommend "White Pine" or "Dream Work." If you already like Mary Oliver, this book won't disappoint you!

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THank you, Mary Oliver!, January 29, 2000

By 

filmteach225 (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Pastures (Paperback)

This book is exquisite. Thanks to Mary Oliver, I have begun to open my eyes, ears, and soul once more. Her poetry, all her observations, are so moving and her connection to life and what really matters has made me reexamine my own "wild and precious life." I wish I could thank Mary Oliver in person for her poetry and her dazzling insights!