New and Selected Poems, Volume One

by Oliver, Mary

• ISBN13: 9780807068779
• ISBN10: 0807068772
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-15
• Publisher: BEACON PRESS

Summary

Strikingly redesigned to accompany the publication of New and Selected Poems, Volume TwoWhen New and Selected Poems, Volume One was originally published in 1992, Mary Oliver was awarded the National Book Award. In the fourteen years since its initial appearance it has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry in the country. This collection features thirty poems published only in this volume as well as selections from the poet's first eight books.Mary Oliver's perceptive, brilliantly crafted poems about the natural landscape and the fundamental questions of life and death have won high praise from critics and readers alike. "Do you love this world?" she interrupts a poem about peonies to ask the reader. "Do you cherish your humble and silky life?" She makes us see the extraordinary in our everyday lives, how something as common as light can be "an invitation/to happiness,/and that happiness,/when it's done right,/is a kind of holiness,/palpable and redemptive." She illuminates how a near miss with an alligator can be the catalyst for seeing the world "as if for the second time/the way it really is." Oliver's passionate demonstrations of delight are powerful reminders of the bond between every individual, all living things, and the natural world.

Author Biography

Mary Oliver is one of the most celebrated and best-selling poets in America. Her books include Red Bird; Our World; Thirst; Blue Iris; New and Selected Poems, Volume One; and New and Selected Poems, Volume Two. She has also published five books of prose, including Rules for the Dance and, most recently, Long Life. She lives in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

New Poems (1991-1992)
Rain	3	(5)
Spring Azures	8	(2)
When Death Comes	10	(2)
Picking Blueberries, Austerlitz, New York, 1957	12	(2)
Her Grave	14	(3)
Goldenrod	17	(2)
The Waterfall	19	(2)
Peonies	21	(2)
This Morning Again It Was in the Dusty Pines	23	(2)
Marengo	25	(1)
Field Near Linden, Alabama	26	(2)
Gannets	28	(2)
Whelks	30	(2)
Alligator Poem	32	(2)
Hawk	34	(2)
Goldfinches	36	(2)
Rice	38	(1)
Poppies	39	(2)
A Certain Sharpness in the Morning Air	41	(2)
A Bitterness	43	(1)
Morning	44	(1)
Water Snake	45	(2)
The Egret	47	(1)
The Snowshoe Hare	48	(2)
The Sun	50	(2)
Winter	52	(2)
Lonely, White Fields	54	(2)
Hummingbird Pauses at the Trumpet Vine	56	(2)
White Flowers	58	(2)
October	60	(5)
FROM House Of Light (1990)
Some Questions You Might Ask	65	(1)
Moccasin Flowers	66	(2)
The Buddha's Last Instruction	68	(2)
Spring	70	(2)
Singapore	72	(2)
The Hermit Crab	74	(2)
Lilies	76	(2)
The Swan	78	(2)
Indonesia	80	(1)
Some Herons	81	(2)
Five A.M. in the Pinewoods	83	(2)
Little Owl Who Lives in the Orchard	85	(2)
The Kookaburras	87	(1)
The Lilies Break Open Over the Dark Water	88	(2)
Nature	90	(2)
The Ponds	92	(2)
The Summer Day	94	(1)
Roses, Late Summer	95	(2)
Maybe	97	(2)
White Owl Flies Into and Out of the Field	99	(4)
FROM Dream Work (1986)
Dogfish	103	(3)
Morning Poem	106	(2)
Rage	108	(2)
Wild Geese	110	(1)
Robert Schumann	111	(1)
Starfish	112	(2)
The Journey	114	(2)
A Visitor	116	(2)
Stanley Kunitz	118	(2)
One or Two Things	120	(3)
The Turtle	123	(2)
Sunrise	125	(2)
Two Kinds of Deliverance	127	(2)
Landscape	129	(1)
Acid	130	(2)
The Moths	132	(2)
1945-1985: Poem for the Anniversary	134	(4)
The Sunflowers	138	(5)
FROM American Primitive (1983)
August	143	(1)
Mushrooms	144	(2)
Lightning	146	(2)
Egrets	148	(2)
First Snow	150	(2)
Ghosts	152	(3)
Vultures	155	(2)
Rain in Ohio	157	(1)
University Hospital, Boston	158	(2)
Skunk Cabbage	160	(1)
Blossom	161	(2)
White Night	163	(2)
The Fish	165	(1)
Crossing the Swamp	166	(2)
Humpbacks	168	(3)
A Meeting	171	(1)
The Sea	172	(2)
Happiness	174	(1)
Tecumseh	175	(2)
In Blackwater Woods	177	(4)
FROM Twelve Moons (1979)
Sleeping in the Forest	181	(1)
Mussels	182	(2)
The Black Snake	184	(1)
Spring	185	(1)
Strawberry Moon	186	(3)
The Truro Bear	189	(1)
Entering the Kingdom	190	(1)
Buck Moon-From the Field Guide to Insects	191	(1)
Dreams	192	(2)
The Lamps	194	(1)
Bone Poem	195	(1)
Aunt Leaf	196	(2)
Hunter's Moon-Eating the Bear	198	(2)
Last Days	200	(1)
The Black Walnut Tree	201	(2)
Wolf Moon	203	(2)
The Night Traveler	205	(4)
FROM The Night Traveler (1978) AND Sleeping in the Forest (1978)
AND FIVE POEMS NOT PREVIOUSLY INCLUDED IN ANY VOLUME
Aunt Elsie's Night Music	209	(2)
Farm Country	211	(1)
Creeks	212	(1)
Roses	213	(1)
Winter in the Country	214	(1)
The Family	215	(1)
Ice	216	(2)
Clam Man	218	(1)
Bailing the Boat	219	(1)
Crows	220	(1)
The Rabbit	221	(1)
Three Poems for James Wright	222	(4)
At Blackwater Pond	226
FROM The River Styx, Ohio and Other Poems (1972)
Hattie Bloom	229	(1)
Spring in the Classroom	230	(1)
Alex	231	(1)
Learning About the Indians	232	(1)
Night Flight	233	(1)
Anne	234	(1)
Answers	235	(1)
The Esquimos Have No Word for "War"	236	(1)
Encounter	237	(1)
Magellan	238	(1)
Going to Walden	239	(1)
The River Styx, Ohio	240	(3)
FROM No Voyage and Other Poems (1963 and 1965)
No Voyage	243	(1)
The House	244	(1)
Beyond the Snow Belt	245	(1)
A Letter from Home	246	(1)
A Dream of Trees	247	(1)
The Murderer's House	248	(1)
Being Country Bred	249	(1)
The Swimming Lesson	250	(1)
Morning in a New Land	251	(1)
Swans on the River Ayr	252	(1)
The Return	253	(2)
On Winter's Margin	255