Review: 'Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver' by Mary Oliver

 Time for a potentially shameful admission: most of my poetry I get from Tumblr. I love it when people share quotes from books and poems there and quite often I find myself then looking up the author/poet and their work. That was the case with Mary Oliver as well

Pub. Date: 10/10/2017
Publisher: Penguin Press

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 living things. Identified as "far and away, this country's best selling poet" by Dwight Garner, she now returns with a stunning and definitive collection of her writing from the last fifty years.

Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver's work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world. 

Devotions is a beautiful collection of Oliver's poems from her very first collection, published in 1963, to what was her last collection in 2015. She arranged these herself, interestingly starting in 2015 and working her way backwards, rather than what you more usually see, which is starting at the beginning of a career. I really enjoyed this twist because we got to see Oliver first as the older woman who has come to terms with certain things, who has lived a full life and drawn certain conclusions, before we see where she started, full of life, questions, and worries. It was soothing, in a way. when reading the earlier poems to know that she reconciled to certain things, that the concerns that are so pressing now will fade over time. What also becomes clear is that throughout nature is the thing that centres Oliver, that gives her a foundation, a place for rest and realization.

I decided to get this poetry collection because I saw the below quote on Tumblr:

'You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
    love what it loves.' - Wild Geese, p.347

At the time I didn't know it was from the poem 'Wild Geese', but it struck me, hard. I loved so many aspects of it, the clear, decisive opening; the image of crawling on your knees in a desert; the deep need to repent for sins you can't remember; acknowledging the 'soft animal of your body'; letting yourself love. It all struck true and I found a lot of that throughout Devotions. Alongside 'Wild Geese' I also adored 'Franz Marc's Blue Horses', 'Tides', 'I Worried', 'Black Oaks', 'The Kitten', 'Strawberry Moon' and 'The Return'. While each section of the collection had its gems, I did find it most fun to dip in and out rather than read consecutively. Because of the abundant nature imagery, some of the poems began to meld together for me if I read for too long. I also once again proved to myself that it is best to read poetry out loud to one's self, because if you're a (semi-)professional reader, you tend to read at a speed that's not conducive to really receiving poetry. 

Some scholars and critics have pointed out Oliver's habit of linking womanhood and nature. The question here for Feminist critics is whether the link between womanhood and nature aids woman or not, whether it is a source of empowerment or rather a continuation of the linking of women's worth to maternity etc. I personally didn't find this overly obvious in the poems selected for Devotions, it was less of a 'womanhood + nature' and more of a 'Mary Oliver + nature' vibe for me. Oliver adores nature and she frequently finds moments of real connection there, which then cast her experiences in the "human world" in a new light. The calm of rain, the peace of a meadow, the ferocity of a snake, the ominous hooting of an owl, it all awakens Oliver's mind. What Devotions really made me want to do was get out there, into nature, and just see, observe. Until that is possible, I will just have to use Oliver's poetry as my escape.

I give this collection...

4 Universes!

Devotions is one of the first poetry collections I bought for myself and I have greatly enjoyed following Mary Oliver's tracks through nature. It has made me want to be more contemplative, to see more, to let myself be in nature. If you open yourself up to it, Devotions is an almost religious experience.