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New and Selected Poems, Volume One
Features previously published and new poems that explore the natural world and how it is connected to human beings and spirituality.
255 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1992
About the author
Mary Oliver
94 books7,169 followersMary Jane Oliver was an American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her work is inspired by nature, rather than the human world, stemming from her lifelong passion for solitary walks in the wild.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 799 reviews
May 23, 2020
RIP, Mary Oliver, 1/17/19
“When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
“When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.”
April 25, 2016
I'll admit it. I'm often intimidated by poetry. Many times I can't understand or find meaning in poems I've read.
I was familiar with some of Mary Oliver's most well-known poems, such as "The Summer Day", "Wild Geese", and "Why I Wake Early", but wouldn't have read this entire book if it wasn't for a challenge for National Poetry month.
I'm very glad that I took the time to go through this book poem by poem. While there were a few that left me scratching my head, on the whole Oliver's poems are approachable and quite moving. Using the natural world as inspiration, Oliver creates metaphors and observations about the human condition that beautifully ring true.
I dog-eared at least 20 poems in this collection, so I can easily find them later, and discovered new favorites such as "Whelks" "The Sun", "University Hospital, Boston" and "The Black Walnut Tree".
4 stars
I was familiar with some of Mary Oliver's most well-known poems, such as "The Summer Day", "Wild Geese", and "Why I Wake Early", but wouldn't have read this entire book if it wasn't for a challenge for National Poetry month.
I'm very glad that I took the time to go through this book poem by poem. While there were a few that left me scratching my head, on the whole Oliver's poems are approachable and quite moving. Using the natural world as inspiration, Oliver creates metaphors and observations about the human condition that beautifully ring true.
I dog-eared at least 20 poems in this collection, so I can easily find them later, and discovered new favorites such as "Whelks" "The Sun", "University Hospital, Boston" and "The Black Walnut Tree".
4 stars
December 21, 2015
Fantastic! Oliver's poems always touch my heart, and this collection shares her best...especially "Wild Geese," and "The Journey."
January 17, 2012
these are poems that teach us how to read (and write) poems. also how to be alive, pay attention, fall in love, find god. it goes in reverse chronological order, so we get to follow the truth as it wiggles all the way back into Oliver's earliest published poems, and waits to expand into every pore of her later work.
a brief list of words she uses in her poems that i want to use in my poems:
blouse
surge
lace
coward
sorrow
soft
valentine
rife
quick
death
unstinting
foolish
blossoms.
i read "in blackwater woods" to my cat the night before she was put to sleep two weeks ago. "to live in this world/ you must be able/ to do three things:/ to love what is mortal;/ to hold it/ against your bones/knowing your own life depends on it;/ and, when the time comes to let it go/to let it go."
oliver makes being alive and being dying careful, beautiful states of grace. i am forever grateful.
a brief list of words she uses in her poems that i want to use in my poems:
blouse
surge
lace
coward
sorrow
soft
valentine
rife
quick
death
unstinting
foolish
blossoms.
i read "in blackwater woods" to my cat the night before she was put to sleep two weeks ago. "to live in this world/ you must be able/ to do three things:/ to love what is mortal;/ to hold it/ against your bones/knowing your own life depends on it;/ and, when the time comes to let it go/to let it go."
oliver makes being alive and being dying careful, beautiful states of grace. i am forever grateful.
October 10, 2007
I LOVE Mary Oliver and would recommend her poetry to anyone. One of the reasons I so love her work is that she is totally accessible. She doesn't write those things that are so obtuse that you are afraid to say, "What the hell is that about?" because everyone else is also afraid to say that and so they all act like it's just brilliant and so no one ever just says, "That makes no *&$%!*&! sense at all. It's horrible." And such is the world of art and poetry today.
Anyway, enough of my rant. If you don't care for poetry but would like to, read Mary Oliver. My two favorite poems are "Summer Day" & "Wild Geese." Google them. Read them. Go ahead. I dare you.
On the other hand, if you are a fan of urinal upside down on the wall installation art, forget it. You'll hate this. It makes too much sense. :)
Anyway, enough of my rant. If you don't care for poetry but would like to, read Mary Oliver. My two favorite poems are "Summer Day" & "Wild Geese." Google them. Read them. Go ahead. I dare you.
On the other hand, if you are a fan of urinal upside down on the wall installation art, forget it. You'll hate this. It makes too much sense. :)
April 9, 2013
Mary Oliver is a national treasure. She is as close to a living, breathing, Ralph Waldo Emerson as we have today. And while her poetry explores the beauty of nature, Mary never forgets that we are nature, as well. Lessons learned from the grace of a swan, or the patience discerned in the face of a stone, bring us closer to the essential and therefore, bring us closer to ourselves. You can’t go wrong with any of her books. My introduction was a poem entitled, The Journey, and I quickly found myself deliriously, deliciously addicted. Her First and Second Anthologies are wonderful and give the reader an overview of her immense talent and gift. But I encourage you to read it all, every glorious poem or prose. Mary has glimpsed the divine, and with language that is direct and clear, encourages all of us to simply pay attention, and to wake up to the beauty bursting around us.
October 30, 2019
Not often,
but now and again there's a moment
when the heart cries aloud:
yes, I am willing to be
that wild darkness,
that long, blue body of light.
Mary Oliver takes my breath away.
but now and again there's a moment
when the heart cries aloud:
yes, I am willing to be
that wild darkness,
that long, blue body of light.
Mary Oliver takes my breath away.
January 18, 2020
A Bitterness
I believe you did not have a happy life.
I believe you were cheated.
I believe your best friends were loneliness and misery.
I believe your busiest enemies were anger and depression.
I believe joy was a game you could never play without stumbling.
I believe comfort, though you craved it, was forever a stranger.
I believe music had to be melancholy or not at all.
I believe no trinket, no precious metal, shone so bright as
your bitterness.
I believe you lay down at last in your coffin none the wiser and
unassuaged.
Oh, cold and dreamless under the wild, amoral, reckless, peaceful
flowers of the hillsides.
I believe you did not have a happy life.
I believe you were cheated.
I believe your best friends were loneliness and misery.
I believe your busiest enemies were anger and depression.
I believe joy was a game you could never play without stumbling.
I believe comfort, though you craved it, was forever a stranger.
I believe music had to be melancholy or not at all.
I believe no trinket, no precious metal, shone so bright as
your bitterness.
I believe you lay down at last in your coffin none the wiser and
unassuaged.
Oh, cold and dreamless under the wild, amoral, reckless, peaceful
flowers of the hillsides.
Read
May 15, 2012Yesterday I gorged on my first feast of Mary Oliver's work, racing through three of her short books all in a day. I've started this one with determination to go a bit more slowly, but as I page through what is here, all I can think is oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! More, more, more, more, more!
June 20
I've finally finished. I took my time with this one, as it covers poetry from many stages of her life, going back to the 1960s. It's hard to assign a rating, but I can recommend it without reservation.
June 20
I've finally finished. I took my time with this one, as it covers poetry from many stages of her life, going back to the 1960s. It's hard to assign a rating, but I can recommend it without reservation.
June 27, 2022
"When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."
This book... I have no words. Every poem in this volume was brilliant. I had to stop myself from bookmarking every piece and ended up bookmarking every other piece. I took my time reading this book just to be able to soak up its beauty better.
For many people, poetry is associated with romantic love and longing. I don't think any of these were about romance. Mary Oliver's works are focused on nature, animals, the depth of the human experience, the non-romantic connection, and loyalty between people. These poems teem with life and it's heartbreakingly beautiful.
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
October 2, 2018
Wittgenstein once said "Whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent." As a logico-philosophical imperative, this is also an ethical imperative. Oliver's anthology is beautiful and insightful as she is successful in expressing the inexpressible precisely because she does not try to do it. She simply describes life, and in her descriptions we begin to understand life in its competing contrasts and depths. These, it turns out, are the things we fail to learn from, and to see beauty in its nakedness.
I'd recommend this to any reader of poetry.
I'd recommend this to any reader of poetry.
April 8, 2009
Oh I love Mary Oliver. She is fierce about nature and just when you think you cannot possibly read another poem about another meadow flower she throws one at ya like
"listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"
Brilliant I say.
And I love her attitude about life, you can either mope around in your life or you can go forth with the ferocity of all that is splendid and real!
"listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"
Brilliant I say.
And I love her attitude about life, you can either mope around in your life or you can go forth with the ferocity of all that is splendid and real!
May 14, 2013
Its been a long time since I read her last...yesterday my little sister asked me what "ineffable" means, and as I was explaining its meaning to her somewhere inside someplace a tiny voice kept insisting,just say "its rather like a Mary Oliver poem"...I do not feel like addressing her with a commonplace Miss Oliver...not when I know her like that and she me..Mary strips me of all my desperate strength, all the futile hard earned evolution and adornments I managed to soil myself with on the way, and as I now sit back, softly murmuring the wise words of her love letters to life, I feel that natural nakedness again, all the excruciating otherness washed and anointed with tender images of the ridiculously simple,my hands are trembling as I type this,I cannot even begin to explain the kind of ancient guttural reflexes she elicits from me. Eliot said the natural language of drama is poetry, I say the natural language of all manner of sentience is music, or anything that evokes it thereby reversing the normal psycho-epistemological process and reaching that raw core in us directly and irrevocably. She does that and stays there. This is my first review here, and I wanted it to be for someone very very special,I read her back in those days when the idealism was just beginning to seep out,so here's to the memory of the 16 year old me and the trembling mass of inconsolable longing I have been thereafter,in memory of Mary the sensational lover,the ever faithful bride married to amazement, who always had room in her heart for the unimaginable,the soul born out of pure attentiveness,I don't want to know what path my life would have tread if you hadn't occurred to me..
March 14, 2019
Just came across Mary Oliver by chance and so glad i did.
Her poetry really bringing you immediately into beauty of nature
and takes you away from the rush of modern life.
Kind of like mindfulness makes you pause and realise what really matters.
Finished this book but of course will continually re-read these great poems.
Her poetry really bringing you immediately into beauty of nature
and takes you away from the rush of modern life.
Kind of like mindfulness makes you pause and realise what really matters.
Finished this book but of course will continually re-read these great poems.
March 14, 2015
Good poetry collection.
Tended towards the nature poetry a bit much for my taste, but these are the collected poems so these are kind of like the greatest hits.
Tended towards the nature poetry a bit much for my taste, but these are the collected poems so these are kind of like the greatest hits.
June 20, 2019
Loved this collection. Definitely the kind of poetry that resonates with me. I look forward to reading more of Mary Oliver's work.
March 9, 2022
Oliver had an unquenchable fire burning for signs and wonders. In a world filled with corporatist sound and fury, Oliver beckoned us to pay attention to the natural world: to its unveiling of itself to us. Attention and care are the price of admission.
June 2, 2022
Y'ALL. I got to page 191, not 251, so I didn't entirely finish the book.
With this book (and Dream of A Common Language) as the exception, I will ALWAYS finish the book I started. My mind nags me if I don't.
It is both a blessing and a curse to have the need to finish every book you once picked up.
And not finishing this WONDERFUL book was a little painful.
Mary Oliver reminded me why I love poetry so much.
It was a profound uplifter at a time where the world is a profound sadness.
Thank you, Mary Oliver, I love you!!!
Favorite/deepest poem: Poem of the Anniversary (talks about the holocaust)
a fragment of the A Meeting poem:
"I meet them.
I can only stare.
She is the most beautiful woman
I have ever seen.
Her child leaps among the flowers,
the blue of the sky falls over me
like silk, the flowers burn, and I want to live my life all over again, to begin again,
to be utterly wild."
With this book (and Dream of A Common Language) as the exception, I will ALWAYS finish the book I started. My mind nags me if I don't.
It is both a blessing and a curse to have the need to finish every book you once picked up.
And not finishing this WONDERFUL book was a little painful.
Mary Oliver reminded me why I love poetry so much.
It was a profound uplifter at a time where the world is a profound sadness.
Thank you, Mary Oliver, I love you!!!
Favorite/deepest poem: Poem of the Anniversary (talks about the holocaust)
a fragment of the A Meeting poem:
"I meet them.
I can only stare.
She is the most beautiful woman
I have ever seen.
Her child leaps among the flowers,
the blue of the sky falls over me
like silk, the flowers burn, and I want to live my life all over again, to begin again,
to be utterly wild."
July 4, 2022
new and selected poems, volume one is a rather remarkable collection of poetry by mary oliver. here the art form i am so fond of masterfully sat in front of me with a beautiful use of language and techniques to convey the poet’s wonders, feelings, and messages. it was as if each poem was a warm hug, enveloping you in the beauty of life no matter the suffering or the complications. no matter the uncertainty of life or what comes after.
roses, late summer
“what happens
to the leaves after
they turn red and golden and fall
away? what happens
to the singing birds
when they can’t sing
any longer? what happens
to their quick wings?
do you think there is any
personal heaven
for any of us?
do you think anyone,
the other side of that darkness,
will call to us, meaning us?
beyond the trees
the foxes keep teaching their children
to live in the valley.
so they never seem to vanish, they are always there
in the blossom of light
that stands up every morning
in the dark sky.
and over one more set of hills,
along the sea,
the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness
and are giving it back to the world.
if i had another life
i would want to spend it all on some
unstinting happiness.
i would be a fox, or a tree
full of waving branches.
i wouldn’t mind being a rose
in a field full of roses.
fear has not yet occurred to them, nor ambition.
reason they have not yet thought of.
neither do they ask how long they must be roses, and then what.
or any other foolish question.”
roses, late summer
“what happens
to the leaves after
they turn red and golden and fall
away? what happens
to the singing birds
when they can’t sing
any longer? what happens
to their quick wings?
do you think there is any
personal heaven
for any of us?
do you think anyone,
the other side of that darkness,
will call to us, meaning us?
beyond the trees
the foxes keep teaching their children
to live in the valley.
so they never seem to vanish, they are always there
in the blossom of light
that stands up every morning
in the dark sky.
and over one more set of hills,
along the sea,
the last roses have opened their factories of sweetness
and are giving it back to the world.
if i had another life
i would want to spend it all on some
unstinting happiness.
i would be a fox, or a tree
full of waving branches.
i wouldn’t mind being a rose
in a field full of roses.
fear has not yet occurred to them, nor ambition.
reason they have not yet thought of.
neither do they ask how long they must be roses, and then what.
or any other foolish question.”
January 27, 2016
Mary Oliver is the greatest of them all. I bookmarked about 25 poems in this collection that I plan to read frequently (and already have.) She writes mainly about nature, starting with the smallest details described in the most artistic way, panning out its (and our) purpose in this world. I will say, I enjoyed the first half of this collection (poems from the '90s/'80s) significantly more than the second half (poems from the '60s/'70s).
If you've ever wanted to get into poetry but roll your eyes at rhyme or forced abstract descriptions, I love Oliver's effortless approachability.
If you've ever wanted to get into poetry but roll your eyes at rhyme or forced abstract descriptions, I love Oliver's effortless approachability.
July 29, 2021
I find reading poetry quite intimidating because I often feel like I am missing the point or not understanding it well enough. nonetheless, most of these poems were quite approachable and reading them brought me a feeling of quiet wonder. I'll be definitely coming back to some of my favourites.
(tbh, rating such a large collection is hard - some poems were truly brilliant but some I could not figure out, so take the four stars with a grain of salt)
(tbh, rating such a large collection is hard - some poems were truly brilliant but some I could not figure out, so take the four stars with a grain of salt)
June 30, 2021
My favorite poet. Her work always blends simplicity and depth. She lived in the moment taking note of Nature and reveling in it. This is a volume of her earlier poems, and a feast for any lover of poetry.
Mary is accessible, and if you don't really like poetry, I challenge you that Mary Oliver will change your mind.
Mary is accessible, and if you don't really like poetry, I challenge you that Mary Oliver will change your mind.
January 28, 2019
queen of my heart and soul
May 4, 2021
Just breathtakingly beautiful.
August 26, 2023
I read this all summer and I really enjoyed it!! I liked the selections of new poems best and some of my favorites were peonies, the summer day, the lamps, and the swimming lesson. Her ruminations on nature and life were poignant and beautiful and they made me reflect! Very good :)
March 17, 2022
obsessed with Oliver's ability to wax out the most endearing poetry even when she's writing about molluscs
January 21, 2009
"There is only one question: how to love this world," Mary Oliver writes in "Spring," one of the finest poems in this collection. The selections in this book try to find answers to that question, primarily in the natural world. These are poems about nature and wonder, love and death, egrets and humpback whales. They aren't difficult poems, but straightforward in their precise, well-crafted imagery. There is a beauty in their apparent simplicity, in the observations of a poet clearly in love with the natural world around her. In her own words:
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
From "When Death Comes"
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
From "When Death Comes"
Shelved as 'dnf'
July 11, 2020Not sure when I will be able to appreciate poetry. Until then this book is a DNF. Will give it a try after some years when I am wiser and older, maybe?
I must try some other poets (or perhaps an anthology) to figure out the type of poetry that I would like. This definitely isn't my type.
I must try some other poets (or perhaps an anthology) to figure out the type of poetry that I would like. This definitely isn't my type.
January 28, 2019
I’m only sorry that it took her death to get me to return to Oliver’s work.
February 28, 2020
i don’t know what it is about her work that makes me love her so. i just do.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 799 reviews