New and Selected Poems: Volume Two

Oliver, Mary

ISBN 10: 0807068861 / ISBN 13: 9780807068861

Published by Beacon Press, Boston, 2005

About this Item

First printing of the first edition. Book in fine condition; minor creasing and a faint sticker ghost to bottom back cover, else fine. Author's notable achievements: Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive, American Academy of Arts & Letters Award, a Lannan Literary Award, the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Prize and Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Seller Inventory # 022580

Bibliographic Details

• Title: New and Selected Poems: Volume Two
• Publisher: Beacon Press, Boston
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807068861
• ISBN 13: 9780807068861
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Barbara Savage Cheresh (Jacket Photo); Sara Eisenman
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • A Collection of Poetry
  • Modern First Editions
  • A Collection of Women Writers

About this title

Synopsis

Understand, I am always trying to figure out
what the soul is,
and where hidden,
and what shape-

New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, an anthology of forty-two new poems-an entire volume in itself-and sixty-nine poems hand-picked by Mary Oliver from six of her last eight books, is a major addition to a career in poetry that has spanned nearly five decades. Now recognized as an unparalleled poet of the natural world, Mary Oliver writes with unmatched dexterity and a profound appreciation for the divergence and convergence of all living things.

Mary Oliver is always searching for the soul of things. In poem after poem, her investigations go from the humble green bean that nourishes her and makes her wonder if "something/-I can't name it-watches as I walk the/rows, accepting the gift of their lives/to assist mine" to the vast, untouchable bliss of "things you can't reach./But you can reach out to them, and all day long./The wind, the bird flying away./The idea of God." Oliver's search grows and is informed by experience, meditation, perception, and discernment. And all the while, during her quest, she is constantly surprised and fortified by joy.

This graceful volume, designed to be paired with New and Selected Poems, Volume One, includes new poems on birds, toads, flowers, insects, bodies of water, and the extraordinary experience of the everyday in our lives. In the words of Alicia Ostriker,'Mary Oliver moves by instinct, faith, and determination. She is among our finest poets, and still growing.' In both the older and new poems, Mary Oliver is a poet at the height of her control of image and language.

About the Author

Mary Oliver (1935–2019), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, is one of the most celebrated and best-selling poets in America. She wrote over 30 volumes of poetry and prose, including Blue Iris, Owls and Other Fantasies, Why I Wake Early, two volumes of New and Selected Poems, and Devotions, as well as two essay collections, Long Life and Upstream.