The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem (Paperback)

by Mary Oliver (Author) "Welcome to the silly, comforting poem..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Oliver's seven-part book-length poem takes its title from Ruskin: "Between the earth and man arose the leaf. Between the heaven and man came the cloud." Oliver's speaker meditates on her own mortality, feels her body "rising through the water/ not much more than a leaf," and declares that she "believes in God,/ though she has no word for it." Wandering wide-eyed through poem, book and world, she can seem too obviously faux na?ve, more stentorian than Marianne Moore-like: "my mother, alas, alas,/ did not always love her life,/ heavier than iron it was/ as she carried it in her arms/ from room to room,/ oh, unforgettable!" Indeed, many of the interrogatives here seem to come right out of a children's book ("Did you know that the ant has a tongue/ with which to gather in all that it can/ of sweetness?// Did you know that?") as do the apostrophes: "and will you find yourself finally wanting to forget/ all enclosures, including// the enclosure of yourself, o lonely leaf." Oliver at her best is less self-consciously playful, whether considering "the mosquito's/ dark dart,/ flushing and groaning" or "the big owl, shaking herself/ out of the pitchpines." But preciousness mars the volume in section after section, undermining fresh utterancesA"I will sing for the Jains and their careful brooms./ I will sing for the salt and the pepper in their little towers on the clean table"Awith a cartoonlike silliness: "I will sing for the two coyotes who came at me with their strong teeth/ and then, at the last moment, began to smile," or worse, with banal abstractions: "I will sing for what is in front of the veil, the floating light./ I will sing for what is behind the veil-light, light, and more light." While the speaker begins many of the lines in humility, she inevitably gets caught up in the wonder and frenzy of her own creations, making this book seem more like an ecstatic one-off than a substantial new collection from a Pulitzer Prize winner. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
An exquisite book-length poem by a poet devoted to close scrutiny of the natural world and exact, sensuous, and ecstatic description. Lyrical and philosophical in the American transcendental tradition, Oliver addresses her readers directly to ravishing effect, and there is magic and wisdom in her gleaming language and aesthetically arresting metaphors. Here she offers instructions for living: "When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider / the orderliness of the world." Accepting the mantle of age, Oliver declares, "I am a woman sixty years old, and glory is my work." And glory is her gift to readers as she contemplates, as though for the first time, flowers, stone, water, the joyful grace of bounding dogs, the surprise of a snake, and the way words, love, and the sky open to us when we stay still, listen, and look. Bathed in the glow of all that she surveys, Oliver observes that death, too, is part of life's order and therefore beautiful. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press; First edition edition (October 16, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306810735
• ISBN-13: 978-0306810732
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,990 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heaven in a wildflower., December 5, 2000

By	G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Leaf And The Cloud: A Poem (Hardcover)

Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. (I recommend her NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (1993).) Although I could easily praise this new book of poems all day, I will keep my comments short. Oliver has taken the title of this book from John Ruskin, who wrote: "Between the earth and man arose the leaf. Between the heaven and man came the cloud. His life being partly as the falling leaf, and partly as the flying vapour." This reference is helpful, I think, in showing that Oliver's seven-poem progression is as much a meditation on the wonders of the natural world ("Everyday--I stare at the world; I push the grass aside/ and stare at the world," p. 9), as it is a profound prayer ("I look up/ into the faces of the stars,/ into their deep silence" p. 44).

Oliver is not the first poet to observe "heaven in a wildflower," but she has the unique ability to find poetry in nature. "What secrets fly out of the earth/ when I push the shovel-edge/ when I heave the dirt open?" (p. 21). She also writes, "It may be the rock in the field is also a song" (p. 14), and "maybe the world, without us,/ is the real poem" (p. 17). The poetry Oliver witnesses in the natural world is synonymous with God's presence. Through nature's beauty and mystery, Oliver discovers "If God exists he isn't just butter and good luck--/ he isn't just the summer day the red rose/ he's the snake he's the mouse,/ he's the hole in the ground" (p. 50).

The poetry here is earthy yet spiritual, simple yet profound. "Words are thunders of the mind" (p. 12). In addition to Ruskin and Blake, there are echoes of Whitman, Emerson, and Plato in these poems. This may be the best book of new poems I've read this year. It is also a good starting point for anyone who has never experienced the pleasures of poetry before.

G. Merritt

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Shaking Free", November 1, 2000

By	Robert A. Wood "chip" (New England,USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Leaf And The Cloud: A Poem (Hardcover)

Mary Oliver's poetry takes away the breath and gives back breath; quickens the pulse and slows it; prays beside the need of the reader; opens most everything. This work, in particular, epic; enduring.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking, March 1, 2003

By	Nanci "Book Dragon" (Tri-Cities, WA USA) - See all my reviews

As always, Mary Oliver's poetry simply takes my breath away. It is at the same time bound to earth and ethereal. She seems to be contemplating mortality, as well as the wonder of life as we live. Although one long poem, each stanza is a poem unto itself, each word a butterfly in your window.