New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2 [Paperback]

Mary Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2007

Mary Oliver has been writing poetry for nearly five decades, and in that time she has become America's foremost poetic voice on our experience of the physical world. This collection presents forty-two new poems-an entire volume in itself-along with works chosen by Oliver from six of the books she has published since New and Selected Poems, Volume One.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following by 13 years her National Book Award–winning New and Selected Volume One, this big and very quotable collection offers more of what Oliver's fans revere: optimistic, clear and lyrical explorations of varying ecosystems, (especially the birds, mammals, ponds and forests of the northeastern U.S.) mingled with rapt self-questioning, consolation and spiritual claims some might call prayers. One of the 42 new poems watches ravens on a "morning of green tenderness and/ rain"; others describe a mockingbird, a white heron, an obedient dog, tiger lilies, deer, terns, blueberry fields on Cape Cod (where Oliver lives) and a "Mountain Lion on East Hill Road," glimpsed just "once, years ago." Poems reprinted from six earlier books (beginning with 1994's White Pine) broaden the focus to insect life, to weather and the seasons ("I have talked with the faint clouds in the sky") and to other parts of the U.S.; while most poems use a mellifluous free verse, some choose the simplicities of prose, a form best achieved in Winter Hours (1999). (Nov.)
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Review

It has always seemed, across her 15 books of poetry, five of prose and several essays and chapbooks, that Mary Oliver might leave us at any minute. Even a 1984 Pulitzer Prize couldn't pin her to the ground. She'd change quietly into a heron or a bear and fly or walk on forever. —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"Oliver's poetry is of the Earth, and about the Earth, and as these poems give voice to the planet, they render human life more beautiful, more sentient, more meaningful." —Karen McCarthy, ForeWord

"These are life-enhancing and redemptive poems that coax the sublime from the subliminal." —Sally Connolly, Poetry

"Mary's Oliver poetry is fine and deep; it reads like a blessing. Her special gift is to connect us with our sources in the natural world, its beauties and terrors and mysteries and consolations." —Stanley Kunitz

"Oliver's poems are thoroughly convincing—as genuine, moving, and implausible as the first caressing breeze of spring." —New York Times Book Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (April 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080706887X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807068878
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #69 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > Poetry

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

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She Explores The Natural World In Beautiful Words!, December 15, 2005

By 

Grumple Dumple - See all my reviews

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This review is from: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2 (Hardcover)

Mary Oliver's poems are masterful creations that resonate in my mind and heart each time I read them. Her language is soulful; her imagery brillant. She is a master craftsman who builds each poem precisely.

Her poems talk of so many things in the natural world; she distills each to its barest essence and allows us the enjoyment of sharing it; I always feel as though she invites me to come along to discover these sacred sights and insights found in nature.

The poems in this collection explore and reveal the essence of fireflies, moss, the stars, the toad, the owl, Daisies, beans, the cricket, the Black Bear, the seasons, Blackwater (a place), the Soul and many other creatures and their habitats.

She is a sublime poet of the natural world and this collection is superb!

I recommend it to anyone!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Oliver is magical, February 16, 2007

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Helena (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2 (Hardcover)

I have about 5 of her poetry books. I feel that her poetry has gotten more and more beautiful over time, and believe that this collection is better than Volume 1. Mary Oliver is definitely my favorite poet - much of her writing is about a thirst for growth and spirituality, and finding peace in nature and love (friendships and relationships). I have given this book to a number of friends, who are also touched by her gift of expressing the unexpressable. Some of my favorite poems in this book: the Percy series (her dog), Why I Wake Early, and The Whistler.

My other favorite book of Mary Oliver poems is her most recent one: "Thirst". It deals with grief at the lost of her long-time partner and is quite beautiful. For those looking for a really good book of poems in general, I *definitely* recommend "Good Poems," compiled by Garrison Keillor; and "Risking Everything: 110 Poems of Love and Redemption" compiled by Roger Housden. Enjoy!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Be Ignited Or Be Gone, April 10, 2007

By 

Alan Gettis "Author of The Happiness Solution... (River Edge, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2 (Paperback)

The Pulitzer Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, finishes her poem,"What Have I Learned So Far" with the line, 'Be ignited, or be gone.'To me, this conveys the passion she brings to life and poetry. What comes through clearly in her poems is her reverence for nature.
New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, is a moving collection of her past works combined with many new poems. There is a Zen isness that permeates her work.Haiku like parsimony with no embellishment. Nature does not need anything extra. For example, writing about what she saw after a storm -
And this detail: the body of a duck, a golden-eye; and beside
it one black-backed gull. In the body of the duck, among the breast
feathers, a hole perhaps an inch across; the color within the hole
a shouting red. And bend it as you might, nothing was to blame:
storms must toss, and the great black-backed gawker must eat, and
so on. It was merely a moment.
I recently saw Mary Oliver at the 92nd Street 'Y' in New York City where she was reading from this collection. See her if you can. She reads as she writes, with dignity and with passion and wisdom. This is an extraordinary collection of poems.