Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays [Paperback]

Mary Oliver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Within these pages Mary Oliver collects twenty-six of her poems about the birds that have been such an important part of her life-hawks, hummingbirds, and herons; kingfishers, catbirds, and crows; swans, swallows, and, of course, the snowy owl; among a dozen others-including ten poems original to this volume. She adds two beautifully crafted essays, "Owls," selected for the Best American Essays series, and "Bird," one that will surely take its place among the classics of the genre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Alternating poems, short essays and drawings of feathers, Oliver's 12th collection is strongest and most direct when using the first person to show the second a path to the good life: "You do not have to be good./ You do not have to walk on your knees/ for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting/ You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves." Many of the poems take up moments of attention to, and are titled for, birds: goldfinches "having a melodious argument"; hummingbirds as "tiny fireworks"; herons "in the black, polished water"; starlings "Chunky and noisy/ but with stars in their black feathers"; and the local crow, of whom she says "I have never seen anything brighter." Oliver won a Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive (1984) and a National Book Award for New and Selected Poems (1992). If this book lacks some of the urgency of earlier work, it has been replaced by a confidence that seems less about writing highly crafted poems than about rendering the moment, whether of observation or imagination, simply and easily, whether in prose or verse. As an essay on a "black-backed gull" Oliver rescued puts it, "no matter how hard I try to tell this story, it's not like it was," but the best of these 28 pieces seem to get close.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Mary Oliver is beautiful and accurate in this book of poetry and prose about birds . . . all rendered with the precision of a line-drawing of a single feather that puts the entire wing into perspective.--Orion

"What we have here are moral essays in prose and verse, passionate meditations on the conduct of life. You will be the wiser-as I believe I am-for having read them."--Frank Wilson, Philadelphia Inquirer

"These poems and essays dazzle us and then send us into deep reflection about the marvels and mysteries of life that come to us in the sightings, songs, and soaring of birds."--Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Health

"Owls and Other Fantasies will bring much pleasure to the many readers who claim Oliver as their favorite poet, as well as to people new to her work." --Judy Clarence, Booklist

"This...title will bring much pleasure to the many readers who claim Oliver as their favorite poet, as well as to people new to her work."--Library Journal

A Book Sense 76 Selection in January 2004

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807068756
• ISBN-13: 978-0807068755
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 0.3 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #76,520 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

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Birds along the path to heaven., October 2, 2003

By 

G. Merritt (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (Hardcover)

Pulitzer-Prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, demonstrates that in a world of "leaves and feathers, and comfort, and instruction" (p. 3), paying attention "is our endless and proper work" (p. 27). With a poet's gift of observation, and a naturalist's eye for detail, Oliver devotes this collection of verse almost entirely to birds. Just as the recent documentary, WINGED MIGRATION, captured the truly amazing nature of birds on film, Oliver captures the fascinating beauty of birds in verse. She compares goldfinches to "fragile bells" reminding us to bow our heads and say a prayer (p. 7), herons in a frozen marsh to "blue smoke" (p. 24), little wrens to "blue sailors" (p. 46), herons on a leafy bank to a "blue preacher" and "an old Chinese poet" (p. 48), an owl to "an angel, or a buddha with wings" (p. 54), starlings to "acrobats in the freezing wind" (p. 56), and an unknown bird that has left a egg to "a tree angel, perhaps, or a ghost of holiness" (p. 60). For Oliver, "the path to heaven doesn't lie down in flat miles," it's in "the imagination with which you perceive the world" (p. 11).

G. Merritt

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great gift!, April 20, 2008

By 

Lydia (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (Paperback)

I purchased this book for a birder friend that never reads poetry and she absolutely loves the book! The book is filled with the sights, sounds, and imagery of nature (in both essay and poetry) as only Mary Oliver can breathe them into life through uncomplicated words and a genuine love of all things.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bird and Crow, December 7, 2009

By 

Michael D. Stevens "magic mike" (Fiskdale, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (Paperback)

After reading an essay (Bird) and a poem (Crow?) in this book, I'm anxious to find and read more of Mary Oliver's work. I tend to favor essays and "Bird" was a special one. If you appreciate good writing read Mary Oliver.