Moonsin 1979 andAmerican Primitivein 1983,
Oliver established herself as a major force in
American letters. Winning both a Pulitzer Prize
and a National Book Award, Oliver is among the
very few modern poets who have won critical
acclaim while at the same time attracting a diverse
and wide readership.
Jean B. Alford, writing inPembrokemagazine
in 1988, calls Oliver’s work ‘‘both distinctive and
worthwhile.’’ Alford sees in Oliver’s poetry an
acceptance of death and, in that acceptance, a
kind of redemption. She writes, ‘‘In her meticulous
craft and loving insight into what endures in both
the human and natural worlds, she gives us all not
only hope but also the potential for salvation—a
modern renewal through mortal acceptance.’’ Ste-
phen Dobyns, in turn, writing in theNew York
Times Book Review, comments on one of Oliver’s
most common themes, the role of death in nature:
‘‘Nature for her is neither pretty nor nice. Beauty is
to be found there, but it is a beauty containing the
knowledge that life is mostly a matter of dying.’’
Likewise, Judith Kitchen, in theGeorgia Review,
comments on Oliver’s treatment of death as a
theme. In a review ofNew and Selected Poems,
Kitchen writes, ‘‘Imagined death is at the heart of
many of these new poems—and, for Oliver, death
is the ultimate merger of the human and the
natural.’’
Some critics consider the spiritual nature of
Oliver’s verse. For example, Douglas Burton-
Christie affirms in an article inCross Currents
that Oliver’s poetry, in its consideration of life,
death, and the oneness of nature, is deeply spiri-
tual. He concludes, ‘‘Oliver evokes a deeply inte-
grated spirituality of the ordinary, helping us to see
and embrace what is, after all, one world, where
nature, spirit and imagination rise together.’’ On
the other hand, critics like the poet Diane Wakoski
focus on her careful consideration of the natural
world. Wakoski declares inContemporary Poets
that Oliver’s ‘‘knowledge of plants and animals is
so rich that no one could question its authenticity.’’
Not all criticism of Oliver’s work is positive,
however. Gyorgyi Voros, writing inParnassus,
argues, ‘‘Considering that she is one of the fore-
most laureates of American Nature poetry of the
last decade, Mary Oliver exhibits a peculiar lack
of genuine engagement with the natural world.’’
He later comments, ‘‘Finally, what is vexing about
Mary Oliver’s poetry is precisely that it does not
suffice as poetry.... Nor does her language hold
up under the contradictions of her need for
transcendence and her need to speak plainly.’’
Likewise, David Barber, in a review ofNew and
Selected Poemsfor the journalPoetry,alsofinds
fault with Oliver’s work, remarking that in this
collection, ‘‘Oliver skates perilously close to the
overweening rhetoric of the self-help aisle and the
recovery seminar.’’ Both critics find Oliver’s ear-
lier poems, of which ‘‘The Black Snake’’ is one, to
be more satisfying than the later poems included
inNew and Selected Poems.
Most critics and readers, however, agree with
Kathryn VanSpanckeren, who asserts in her
essay ‘‘Contemporary American Poetry: A Rich
Cornucopia with a Genuinely Popular Base,’’
that Oliver is a ‘‘stunning, accessible poet’’ who
‘‘evokes plants and animals with visionary inten-
sity.’’ She sees in ‘‘The Black Snake’’ a celebration
of the day at hand: ‘‘Thiscarpe diemis an invita-
tion to a more rooted, celebratory awareness.’’CRITICISMDiane Andrews Henningfeld
Henningfeld is a professor emerita of literature who
writes widely for educational publishers. In the fol-
lowing essay, she examines Oliver’s careful use of
poetic techniques such as pause, caesura, and
enjambment in ‘‘The Black Snake.’’
The English Romantic poet John Keats once
wrote famously, ‘‘If poetry comes not as naturally
as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at
all.’’ With this statement, Keats suggests that poets
ought to listen to their hearts and emotions rather
than to their minds and reason. It is unlikely that
he meant poets ought to just pour whatever comes
intotheirmindsontopaperandexpecttheresult
to be good poetry. Keats worked hard at his
poetry, and while his ideas and thoughts flowed
naturally to him, he nonetheless used a wide vari-
ety of poetic techniques to craft some of the most
lovely poems in the English language.
Many readers and writers of poetry seem to
feel that contemporary poetry is all emotion, with
little or no attention to craft. Because Mary
Oliver’s work is so clearly written and so acces-
sible, it is possible for readers to assume that her
work just flows naturally from her heart to the
paper, without her needing to give any consider-
ation to the writing itself. When one examines,
however, Oliver’s own writing about poetry, one
discovers a rich understanding of how the craft of
the poem contributes to the meaning of the poemThe Black Snake