“But, you know, I've said before that the angel doesn't sit on your shoulder unless the pencil's in your hand.” Mary Oliver, poet, reveals.
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Poet Mary Oliver has had the angel on her shoulder since childhood. As a young girl, she scribbled down what she saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and touched that moved her spirit. Living as a writer became the main motivation and inspiration of her life. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, she spent plenty of time in the woods and fields of the young city. Later, she attended Ohio State (briefly) and moved on to attend Vassar College.
Although she obtained an extensive education and maintained an intensive writing discipline by writing in the early hours of the morning, her poems were not published until the late 1980’s. Specifically, in 1984 she received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for a collection of poetry entitled American Primitive. She taught at Bucknell Univeristy and currently teaches at “Sweet Briar College in Virginia and serves as the Margaret Banister Writer in Residence.”
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Even more, her poetry centers on the simplicities of nature, which reveal both everyday and eternal life lessons. These are exemplified in precise images as well as concise line and stanza structures. Although the preference of solitude is thematic throughout Oliver’s poetry, the universal essence of the issues touches many readers almost immediately. Each poem shows the readers what the narrator sees, hears, touches, smells, tastes, feels, and thinks! How invigorating. The following examples of Mary Oliver’s poetry is evidence enough!
This first example is from the poem "Wild Geese."
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting!
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
The poem can be read entirely at:
http://www.vasudevaserver.com/home/sites...
The narrator of this poem invites the reader to acknowledge that one is not alone by using the second person "you" throughout the poem. In addition, the idea that one should enjoy bodily pleasures connects readers to others, almost as though giving permission since joy is innate. Along with joy, despair arises. The poet captures the readers' interest, for humans are often riddled with despair. The last stanza not only solidifies the idea that people are part of a family and even a global community, but that humans are a natural part of life on earth and of history. Many times a person struggles to discover his or her place in the circle of life. This poem radiates hope to all.
http://www.csmonitor.com/atcsmonitor/spe...
Poet Mary Oliver has had the angel on her shoulder since childhood. As a young girl, she scribbled down what she saw, heard, tasted, smelled, and touched that moved her spirit. Living as a writer became the main motivation and inspiration of her life. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, she spent plenty of time in the woods and fields of the young city. Later, she attended Ohio State (briefly) and moved on to attend Vassar College.
Although she obtained an extensive education and maintained an intensive writing discipline by writing in the early hours of the morning, her poems were not published until the late 1980’s. Specifically, in 1984 she received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for a collection of poetry entitled American Primitive. She taught at Bucknell Univeristy and currently teaches at “Sweet Briar College in Virginia and serves as the Margaret Banister Writer in Residence.”
http://www.vasudevaserver.com/home/sites...
Even more, her poetry centers on the simplicities of nature, which reveal both everyday and eternal life lessons. These are exemplified in precise images as well as concise line and stanza structures. Although the preference of solitude is thematic throughout Oliver’s poetry, the universal essence of the issues touches many readers almost immediately. Each poem shows the readers what the narrator sees, hears, touches, smells, tastes, feels, and thinks! How invigorating. The following examples of Mary Oliver’s poetry is evidence enough!
This first example is from the poem "Wild Geese."
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting!
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
The poem can be read entirely at:
http://www.vasudevaserver.com/home/sites...
The narrator of this poem invites the reader to acknowledge that one is not alone by using the second person "you" throughout the poem. In addition, the idea that one should enjoy bodily pleasures connects readers to others, almost as though giving permission since joy is innate. Along with joy, despair arises. The poet captures the readers' interest, for humans are often riddled with despair. The last stanza not only solidifies the idea that people are part of a family and even a global community, but that humans are a natural part of life on earth and of history. Many times a person struggles to discover his or her place in the circle of life. This poem radiates hope to all.
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The copyright of the article Mary Oliver's Rippling Poetry, Like a Stone Thrown Into Still-Water in American Poetry Review is owned by . Permission to republish Mary Oliver's Rippling Poetry, Like a Stone Thrown Into Still-Water in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
