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Mary Oliver was an American poet, born in 1935 and living until 2019. She published 33 poetry collections, 2 essay collections, and two books on craft writing. She won the Pulitzer Prize for one of her poetry collections, American Primitive.

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Oliver’s poetry is notable for both its lyricism and unpretentiousness. Using straightforward and simple language, she evokes beautiful imagery as well as deep emotion. Often, what is most powerful about her poems is what is left unsaid; this gives the reader the ability to feel they are in her position interpreting her images and settings of her poems for themself, which was one of her goals with this style. One of the most popular examples of this can be seen in her poem “Wild Geese,” which is so popular it’s difficult to navigate Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, or any website popular with young women without finding it shared there.

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Common Themes Exemplified in American Primitive

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Common Themes Exemplified in American Primitive

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Winning the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, American Primitive is Oliver’s most famous work and clearly exemplifies the themes that are most common across her body of work. Mary Oliver’s themes are often meditations on the natural world, which has drawn comparison to that of Walt Whitman’s. Her poetry also deals with spirituality and God, albeit in a subtler and more expansive way than the explicit Christianity she was raised within. Her relationships and emotional experiences are often inferred rather than clearly detailed, but always present.

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Mary was a lesbian, and had a partner of many decades named Molly Malone Cook. Molly was a photographer, whose work Mary published after Molly’s death. Molly was also Mary’s literary agent.

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Molly’s death after more than forty years together led Mary to write her poetry collection “Thirst,” grappling with her grief. Though the natural world still features prominently in Thirst, much of the subject matter is spiritual darkness and learning to live with loss. This pairing is especially effective given the numerous examples of change evident in nature.

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Mary Oliver’s work is a significant contribution to the canon of American poetry by women. Though her poetry was less political on a surface level than much other lesbian poetry of the time period, there are many implications for our wider society in her deep contemplation of the natural world. In her poem “Messenger,” Oliver says “My work is loving the world.” By studying her own work, we may come to recognize the significance of Earth for our own spiritual edification as individuals and, on a larger scale, the importance of protecting that environment from harm.

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https://maryoliver.com/bio/

https://poets.org/poet/mary-oliver

https://onbeing.org/programs/mary-oliver-i-got-saved-by-the-beauty-of-the-world/