311 books
—
32 voters
Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver” as Want to Read:
Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
by
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver presents a personal selection of her best work in this definitive collection spanning more than five decades of her esteemed literary career.
Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all ...more
Throughout her celebrated career, Mary Oliver has touched countless readers with her brilliantly crafted verse, expounding on her love for the physical world and the powerful bonds between all ...more
Get A Copy
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Devotions,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
Kris
Yes, they are both here!
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
Start your review of Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
This is a beautiful collection of poetry from Mary Oliver. I finished it with a tear in my eye knowing there won't be anything more from her. She just passed away this year. There is something about her poetry that is comforting to me. I'm sorry she is gone.
It was very hard to pick a favorite poem from this book because there are so many I loved.
This one is still one of my favorites.
What Gorgeous Thing
I do not know what gorgeous thing
the bluebird keeps saying,
his voice easing out of his throat,
b ...more
It was very hard to pick a favorite poem from this book because there are so many I loved.
This one is still one of my favorites.
What Gorgeous Thing
I do not know what gorgeous thing
the bluebird keeps saying,
his voice easing out of his throat,
b ...more
Sep 8, 2019
From New and Selected Poems: Volume Two (2005) by Mary Oliver
It has been six months since I last read Mary Oliver’s poems. This past week as the weight of work bore down on me, I sought refuge in her verse, and read a couple each evening.
In an extraction of eleven poems from her collection of new poems from 2005, Oliver bade us pay attention to the natural world in every season. As she contemplated her role as a poet, she took inspiration from the ease with which nature eloquently de ...more
From New and Selected Poems: Volume Two (2005) by Mary Oliver
It has been six months since I last read Mary Oliver’s poems. This past week as the weight of work bore down on me, I sought refuge in her verse, and read a couple each evening.
In an extraction of eleven poems from her collection of new poems from 2005, Oliver bade us pay attention to the natural world in every season. As she contemplated her role as a poet, she took inspiration from the ease with which nature eloquently de ...more
Mary is one of my constant companions. This book is one I will be reading today, tomorrow, the next day, the next year, and the next, because I will read it for the rest of my life. Thank you, Mary for giving my love of life and nature voice.
I am aware of the criticisms of Mary Oliver’s work. She wrote about perhaps uncool things like God and the natural world and has been called “earnest” amongst other patronizing things. I believe that the critics are missing the core of her work which comes from an embodied sense of the ecstatic connection to all things. That we are not indeed truly separate but appear so in manifest form. This is not a cerebral concept, it is a felt sense in the body and Oliver’s poetry is drenched in this but w
...more
I pre-ordered Devotions without looking at the description, because Mary Oliver! I didn't realize it's a collection of previously published work. I own all of her ebooks, so much of the content isn't new to me. It is very nice to have selected poems from books not available as ebooks and those that are out of print: What Do We Know, The Leaf And The Cloud, White Pine, American Primitive, Twelve Moons, The River Styx, Ohio, and No Voyage.
For those with a Mary Oliver collection, here's what's inc ...more
For those with a Mary Oliver collection, here's what's inc ...more
Devotions provides a fitting culmination of her life philosophy, her core tenets bound together in one vulnerable place. Ultimately, her work divulges with astute observation the crux of what we are: at once human and animal, at once selfish and full of gratitude, at once perfect and profoundly flawed. The paradoxical balancing act between shameless desire and overwhelming selflessness is deftly traversed through her lush turns of phrase:
For one thing leads to another....more
Soon you will notice how st
With Mary Oliver's recent passing, I wanted to read her selected poems in order to see why she was so popular and also to find enjoyment in them as well. My first advice for this book and other selected or collected poems of poets is to read them starting with the early books and moving forward from there. You will see how the poet develops.
I cannot give these poems any accolades for their craft or uniqueness. They reminded me of the old Swanson TV dinners in foil trays: uniformly prepared and o ...more
I cannot give these poems any accolades for their craft or uniqueness. They reminded me of the old Swanson TV dinners in foil trays: uniformly prepared and o ...more
Uff da. I should just own all of Oliver's smaller books... this is heavy as being so many pages and so encompassing. But thanks to a generous library I'm simply renewing it over & over and I will finish soon!
It's very interesting in that it works backwards in time. The first poems are the very most accessible, as she's honed her craft and focused on her theme. Even those readers who are just barely ready for more than Shel Silverstein can enjoy these. Later in the book, as we approach her at a y ...more
It's very interesting in that it works backwards in time. The first poems are the very most accessible, as she's honed her craft and focused on her theme. Even those readers who are just barely ready for more than Shel Silverstein can enjoy these. Later in the book, as we approach her at a y ...more
Mary Oliver Speaks to Me
Her solo is a spare song,
Sung in that way of pure unaccompanied human voice
That is raw honesty.
I love how the first note of each poem
Pierces the white page,
And humbles me with Love
Of this world
That only moments before
I had forgotten.
Backwards through a life of figuring out
With words....
Sing on beautiful bird!
And thank you
For letting me live in your world for a few hours,
All I need
And my reading glasses.
Her solo is a spare song,
Sung in that way of pure unaccompanied human voice
That is raw honesty.
I love how the first note of each poem
Pierces the white page,
And humbles me with Love
Of this world
That only moments before
I had forgotten.
Backwards through a life of figuring out
With words....
Sing on beautiful bird!
And thank you
For letting me live in your world for a few hours,
All I need
And my reading glasses.
attention is the beginning of devotion attention is the beginning of devotion!!!!!!!!
These poems feel like exhaling, when you didn’t realize you were holding your breath.
Devotions - Mary Oliver
In a selection of poems like those in this book, covering over fifty years of poetry, a lot of the poems’ overall context is missing.
I consider Oliver’s ‘American Primitive’ one of my favorite poetry books but even so the handful of selections included here from that book have lost some of the magic as stand alone poems.
Poems I liked singularly.
1. Blueberries
2. Percy (One) - about her dog who ate the book of Bhagavad Gita
3. Her grave - about her dog and the animals nearb ...more
In a selection of poems like those in this book, covering over fifty years of poetry, a lot of the poems’ overall context is missing.
I consider Oliver’s ‘American Primitive’ one of my favorite poetry books but even so the handful of selections included here from that book have lost some of the magic as stand alone poems.
Poems I liked singularly.
1. Blueberries
2. Percy (One) - about her dog who ate the book of Bhagavad Gita
3. Her grave - about her dog and the animals nearb ...more
I did it! I completed the collection. The poems are listed in reverse order with the most recent poems first and the earliest poems last. This is an interesting way to take in the work of Mary Oliver. The poems are all related to nature in some manner, but I feel the earlier poems are more abstract.
I’m so glad I bought myself this book. I have so many lines underlined. I loved it.
I’m so glad I bought myself this book. I have so many lines underlined. I loved it.
I feel totally connected with Mary Olivers images;
nature, trees, insects, spirituality, joy.
Just wonderful and enlightening.
nature, trees, insects, spirituality, joy.
Just wonderful and enlightening.
Perhaps the most peaceful thing I have ever read.
"listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?"
...more
Absolutely stunning
Someday, in the new earth, I would like to go for a walk with Mary Oliver and see, with our sanctified eyes, more beauty than we ever thought possible.
This lovely book of poems spans 52 years, from 1963-2015. I have a number of "favorite" poets, among them T. S. Eliot, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson. But as I've come to read more of her work over the past 15 years, Mary Oliver has indeed captured my heart. As I read this book, it occurred to me that though her fundamental stance on life & the world has remained essentially the same, her way of expressing that reality has matured, grown in simplicity but also in perception & depth of meaning.
...more
this held a lot of poems i am familiar with as it is a selection from previous publications, but reading them again with the eyes of someone who has now been sitting with mary oliver a few hours a week was an enitrely new experience. felt something in me swell and grow as i read "the dream of my life/is to lie down by a slow river/and stare at the light in the trees/to learn something from being nothing"
...more
Mary Oliver's poems are always gorgeous -- her nature imagery and ability to call out the small, exquisite moments from the wilderness is perfect. I wish, though, that the collection had been put in chronological order instead of reverse chronological -- I would have rather enjoyed seeing how her work evolved as I dipped in and out of the collection.
...more
A wonderful collection - absolutely beautiful from start to finish.
what else is there but to close yet another book of mary oliver's poetry, lie down in bed, and stare at the ceiling
...more
Aug 27, 2020
ladydusk
added it
I finished this today.
I understand that these are Oliver's personal selections for anthology from a lifetime of writing poetry. Presented in reverse chronological order (newer poems first), I definitely preferred the newer, beginning poems to the older ones at the end. In fact, my favorite was the very first in the book. I've returned to it a number of times over the last year.
I'm sure there's a great deal here that a re-read would improve, but I think I'll save that for another time. I just re ...more
I understand that these are Oliver's personal selections for anthology from a lifetime of writing poetry. Presented in reverse chronological order (newer poems first), I definitely preferred the newer, beginning poems to the older ones at the end. In fact, my favorite was the very first in the book. I've returned to it a number of times over the last year.
I'm sure there's a great deal here that a re-read would improve, but I think I'll save that for another time. I just re ...more
I started reading this book alongside The Way of the Heart (unintentionally) where Nouwen discusses the need to quiet our hearts. These poems provided me a practical path to quieting my heart and in doing so allowed me to see more and hear better. Will return to them again and again!
Review to come.
no words!!!!! beautiful beautiful beautiful. i really liked the way it was ordered reverse chronologically (most recent poems first, first poems last) - it was so interesting to see how her voice changed over the years. highly recommended
Dec 11, 2020
Helena
added it
lovely! more religion than expected bc I only knew about the nature part of Mary Oliver, but maybe I should have seen that one coming given the title
When has happiness ever required much evidence to begin its leaf-green breathing?
An enjoyable collection. I never fully got on board with Oliver's poetic voice, but her visible love for nature and occassional good turn of phrase kept me reading. Here are my highlights:
- This Morning
- Whistling Swans
- Storage
- That Little Beast
- On Meditating, Sort Of
- Tides
- Varanasi
- It Was Early
- Almost a Conversation
- Evidence
- Prayer
- Mysteries, Yes
- At the River Clarion
- The Other KIngdoms
- Coyote in th ...more
Nov 05, 2020
Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
poetry,
nature,
celebration,
challenge,
healing,
serendipity,
inspiration,
humor,
relationships,
animals
Mary Oliver covers it all in her poems---life and death, pain and joy, loss and gain, sacrifice and gift, simplicity and complexity, the human amid nature...everything. She's somehow brilliant without ever seeming to put out any effort toward becoming so. Her poems are some of the wisest poems I've ever read.
...more
...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: Please add original date published | 3 | 12 | Oct 25, 2017 11:20PM |
Readers also enjoyed
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
“In a region that has produced most of the nation's poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the na ...more
“In a region that has produced most of the nation's poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the na ...more
Articles featuring this book
When you work at Goodreads, it's pretty tough to keep that Want to Read shelf under control. (And let's be honest, most of us don't even...
163 likes · 44 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
—
15 likes
“If you have ever gone to the woods with me, I must love you very much.”
—
14 likes
More quotes…
