“Joy is not made to be a crumb,” writes Mary Oliver, and certainly joy abounds in her new book of poetry and prose poems. Swan, her twentieth volume, shows us that, though we may be “made out of the dust of stars,” we are of the world she captures here so vividly: the acorn that hides within it an entire tree; the wings of the swan like the stretching light of the river; the frogs singing in the shallows; the mockingbird dancing in air. Swan is Oliver’s tribute to “the mortal way” of desiring and living in the world, to which the poet is renowned for having always been “totally loyal.”
As the Los Angeles Times noted, innumerable readers go to Oliver’s poetry “for solace, regeneration and inspiration.” Few poets express the immense complexities of human experience as skillfully, or capture so memorably the smallest nuances. Speaking, for example, of stones, she writes, “the little ones you can / hold in your hands, their heartbeats / so secret, so hidden it may take years / before, finally, you hear them.” It is no wonder Oliver ranks, according to the Weekly Standard, “among the finest poets the English language has ever produced.”
Swan: Poems and Prose Poems
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Cherished nature poet Oliver begins her twentieth collection by asking, “What can I say that I have not said before?” Then continues reporting on the wisdom she gleans in woods and on the beach, making each dispatch fresh and startling by way of the vitality of her encompassing vision and the fluidity and shine of her language. Her love for dogs remains ardent; she is still enthralled by birds and unrepentant in her celebration of beauty. The sun of her gratitude is great, illuminating beloved household objects, the rapidity of a hummingbird, and “the drowse of mountains.” The poet gets bloodied when she tries to help an injured gull, which inspires her to declare, “I love this world, even in its hard places. / A bird too must love this world, / even in its hard places. / So, even if the effort may come to nothing, / you have to do something.” Oliver’s plainspoken yet ringing poems are testimony to joy, prayers, and sermons. She concurs: “Okay, I confess to wanting to make a literature of praise.” --Donna Seaman
Review
Praise for Mary Oliver
“One of the astonishing aspects of Oliver’s work is the consistency of tone over this long period [of her career]. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets. . . . Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.”
—Stephen Dobyns, New York Times Book Review
“Mary Oliver’s 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
“Mary Oliver’s poems are natural growths out of a loam of perception and feeling, and instinctive skill with language makes them seem effortless. Reading them is a sensual delight.”
—May Swenson
“Like Henry David Thoreau of Transcendentalist fame she is a naturalist whose attention to what used to be called the Book of Nature borders on both devotion and experimentation. . . . Mindfulness seems to be Oliver’s métier, looking and listening her scientific method and contemplative practice.”
—Stephen Prothero, Search
“I should be clear that Mary Oliver is, to my mind, one of the most gifted American poets working in English today. In her hands, the language acquires a lucidity approaching translucence; the accuracy of her vision and the precision of her voice are unique in their refreshing simplicity. Perhaps most singular is the tendency of her poems to be at once powerful and appealing; an affection for the natural world and a sympathy toward the reader abide.”
—Katherine Hollander, Pleiades
“This year the Top 5 [Indiebound poetry best sellers] can be summed up in six words: Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver. Oliver’s impressive feat reflects both an enduring popularity and an unparalleled ability to touch readers on a deep, almost primal level.”
—Elizabeth Lund, Christian Science Monitor
“Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.”
—Alicia Ostriker, The Nation
“One would have to reach back perhaps to [John] Clare or [Christopher] Smart to safely cite a parallel to Oliver’s lyricism.”
—David Barber, Poetry
“The music in Oliver’s writing is unmistakable. Her poetry can be read as the best of the real lyrics we have these days, and it’s no surprise that she’s already won a Pulitzer Prize for it, as well as many other honors.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Oliver’s plainspoken yet ringing poems are testimony to joy, prayers, and sermons.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist
With her new collection, this winner of the National Book Award for Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry once again joyfully celebrates the natural world.
—Ms. magazine
“You can pick up pretty much any Mary Oliver collection and be thrilled, but Swan…is so piercing and penetrating that form seems to fall away, an unnecessary stage for the rocket.”
—Christian Century
“One of the astonishing aspects of Oliver’s work is the consistency of tone over this long period [of her career]. What changes is an increased focus on nature and an increased precision with language that has made her one of our very best poets. . . . Although few poets have fewer human beings in their poems than Mary Oliver, it is ironic that few poets also go so far to help us forward.”
—Stephen Dobyns, New York Times Book Review
“Mary Oliver’s 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
“Mary Oliver’s poems are natural growths out of a loam of perception and feeling, and instinctive skill with language makes them seem effortless. Reading them is a sensual delight.”
—May Swenson
“Like Henry David Thoreau of Transcendentalist fame she is a naturalist whose attention to what used to be called the Book of Nature borders on both devotion and experimentation. . . . Mindfulness seems to be Oliver’s métier, looking and listening her scientific method and contemplative practice.”
—Stephen Prothero, Search
“I should be clear that Mary Oliver is, to my mind, one of the most gifted American poets working in English today. In her hands, the language acquires a lucidity approaching translucence; the accuracy of her vision and the precision of her voice are unique in their refreshing simplicity. Perhaps most singular is the tendency of her poems to be at once powerful and appealing; an affection for the natural world and a sympathy toward the reader abide.”
—Katherine Hollander, Pleiades
“This year the Top 5 [Indiebound poetry best sellers] can be summed up in six words: Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver, Mary Oliver. Oliver’s impressive feat reflects both an enduring popularity and an unparalleled ability to touch readers on a deep, almost primal level.”
—Elizabeth Lund, Christian Science Monitor
“Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.”
—Alicia Ostriker, The Nation
“One would have to reach back perhaps to [John] Clare or [Christopher] Smart to safely cite a parallel to Oliver’s lyricism.”
—David Barber, Poetry
“The music in Oliver’s writing is unmistakable. Her poetry can be read as the best of the real lyrics we have these days, and it’s no surprise that she’s already won a Pulitzer Prize for it, as well as many other honors.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Oliver’s plainspoken yet ringing poems are testimony to joy, prayers, and sermons.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist
With her new collection, this winner of the National Book Award for Poetry and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry once again joyfully celebrates the natural world.
—Ms. magazine
“You can pick up pretty much any Mary Oliver collection and be thrilled, but Swan…is so piercing and penetrating that form seems to fall away, an unnecessary stage for the rocket.”
—Christian Century
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
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
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another delight,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Hardcover)
I have devoured this pre-ordered copy and then re-read much more slowly. I love her take on nature and its realism - yes, she finds so much beautiful but she knows the darker side and in accepting that, accepts the truth of things in nature (including ourselves, naturally.) I laughed at the Percy (her dog)poems and then saw deeper wisdom in them. I look forward to immersing myself in the book over time. My favorite poem at this point is "For Example". Who can resist the line?
"But we all know, don't we, how sometimes things have to feel anger, so as not to be defeated?"
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Swan,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Hardcover)
Mary Oliver does it again! After a brief time of what I felt was perhaps poetry depressed by the death of her long time partner, this new book is filled with life and living images, with the joy and reverence Oliver has always shown, toward all of nature.
I'll continue buying every one of her books.
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Mary Oliver,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems (Hardcover)
You can sense the recovery from the loss of her life partner in her poems. An interesting look at faith and nature - a must read for Oliver fans!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
