Dream Work (Paperback)

by Mary Oliver (Author) "Some kind of relaxed and beautiful thing kept flickering in with the tide and looking around..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
In the making of her poems, Oliver wields the most delicate of instruments: precision similes and astonishing metaphors. Though Dream Work , her seventh book, is somewhat less sucessful than Twelve Moons or American Primitive , which won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize, few lyric voices can match hers in paying homage to the natural world. Yet, her "dream works" can be palpably tragic. Inured to the absence of her estranged father ("Rage" and "A Visitor"), Oliver "saw what love might have done had we loved in time." And "Members of the Tribe" is a remarkable address to artists and poets on death and art. There are still too many echoes of James Wright in her workreferences to body, blessing, blossom, and bone. But that is a minor demur against one who is developing into a major poet. J.P. Lewis, Integrative Studies Dept., Otterbein Coll., Westerville, Ohio
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Oliver’s American Primitive, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1983. The depth and diversity of perceptual awareness — so steadfast and radiant in American Primitive — continues in Dream Work. Additionally, she has turned her attention in these poems to the solitary and difficult labors of the spirit — to accepting the truth about one’s personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the failures of human relationships.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; Later Printing edition (January 7, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871130696
• ISBN-13: 978-0871130693
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 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: #79,954 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #21 in

  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( O ) > Oliver, Mary

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars These poems are luminous and exquisite...., October 19, 1998

By A Customer

_Dream Work_ is the first Mary Oliver book that I found, way back in 1989 while ill with pneumonia. "The Journey", possibly Mary's most popular poem, leapt out at me and quite literally opened my mind to a deeper commitment to self-care. That poem was Good Medicine!! ... "Wild Geese" has been another balm; who among us couldn't feel more tender towards ourselves when we read these lines, "You do not have to be good./You do not have to walk on your knees/for a hunded miles through the desert, repenting./You only have to let the soft animal of your body/love what it loves."?

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So Beautiful It Will Make You Cry Like A Baby, April 17, 1998

By A Customer

Mary Oliver is the poet I always point to first to contradict people who say, "For poetry to be good, it has to be depressing." Oliver continually proves that being hopeful, appreciative, and optimistic isn't necessarily incompatible with being a good artist/writer or a person who thinks analytically and critically. The poems in this book largely deal with nature, art, or music, and with appreciating the natural world, even if that appreciation sometimes needs to be forced.

I still don't know how Oliver does it. . . something about the clarity of her language makes subjects and philosophies that would sound trite or sugary in the lines of any other writer deeply moving. Perhaps because she doesn't embellish on her subjects, but lets the images and ideas speak for themselves.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Graceful Muse, December 6, 2005

By	John Paul Jaubert (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was a little tired of studying one day years ago and decided to pick up something entirely different and read it instead. I did a random search for whatever words came to my fingertips first. I was away at college and feeling a little homesick I guess. As I recall, the words included "moonlight", "home", and "dream". I got back Twelve Moons, House of Light, and Dreamwork. That started my romance with Mary Oliver.
I'm aware that many people say her imagery is too rich, too luxurious, and that it is not so much elemental as "stock". I also believe that that's like criticizing Tchaikovsky or Strauss or Puccini for being too melodic, too beautiful, too sad, too delightful.
I see no reason to believe that popularity and artistic value must be inversely proportional. Quite the contrary, I wish that more people could know about this wonderful woman to whom I am so deeply grateful.