Poulin believes that the acceptance of the
hard truths of mortal existence is epiphany for
Oliver as well as for modern man himself—the
essential nature or meaning of life. In ‘‘Black-
water Wood,’’ she asserts that living productively
today is dependent on three measures of accept-
ance by man:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
To Oliver, man’s inward struggles to be
immortal through art, work, or love do not cancel
mortal existence but rather create a fleeting sense
of stay. In ‘‘Music Lessons,’’ when the teacher
takes over the piano, ‘‘sound becomes music’’
that flees ‘‘all tedious bonds: / supper, the duties
of flesh and home, / the knife at the throat, the
death in the metronome.’’ The grand finale,
though, is only a momentary transformation.
Contemporary man’s acceptance of his mor-
tality will benefit daily living in productive
encounters of love, caring, and understanding. It
allows him to look beyond the self to view death
as in harmony with the recreative processes of
nature. In ‘‘The Kitten,’’ the narrator believes
that she ‘‘did right’’ to give the stillborn ‘‘with
one large eye / in the center of its small forehead’’
back peacefully to nature rather than to a
museum. For she asserts, ‘‘life is infinitely inven-
tive. / saying what other arrangements / lie in the
dark seed of the earth... ’’ In ‘‘University Hospi-
tal, Boston,’’ a family member reconciles the
dying of a loved one. While she tells him ‘‘you
are better,’’ she sees other beds ‘‘made all new, /
the machines... rolled away... .’’ And, she
acknowledges, ‘‘... the silence / continues. deep
and neutral, as I stand there, loving you.’’
The acceptance of the hard truths of mortal-
ity also provides a reforming perspective on daily
dying—the progressive inward death of one’s self-
consciousness. As Oliver celebrates in ‘‘Sleeping
in the Forest,’’ such daily extinctions allow man
to ‘‘vanish into something better.’’ In ‘‘Sharks,’’ as
the narrator describes swimmers too soon forget-
ting the lifeguard’s warning, she asserts: ‘‘... life’s
winners are not the rapacious but the patient; /
What triumphs and takes new territory / has
learned to lie for centuries in the shadows / like
the shadows of the rocks.’’
Oliver’s poetry, then, reminds modern man
that accepting the dire consequences of mortal
existence through a heightened sensual percep-
tion takes time and patience. It does not come
easily like an automatic reflex but rather develops
through a slow, painful transformation of self to
selflessness. Its rewards, however, are as delecta-
ble and exciting as the red fox’s appearance in
‘‘Tasting the Wild Grapes’’—‘‘lively as the dark
thorns of the wild grapes / on the unsuspecting
tongue!’’
Thus reviewed is the poetry of Mary Oliver—
contemporarily non-representative, positive, tra-
ditional, conservative, deceptively simple, com-
plex without throwing complexities in the way of
the reader. As a modern poet, she is both distinc-
tive and worthwhile. 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.
Source:Jean B. Alford, ‘‘The Poetry of Mary Oliver:
Modern Renewal Through Mortal Acceptance,’’ inPem-
broke, Vol. 20, 1988, pp. 283–88.Sources
Alford, Jean B., ‘‘The Poetry of Mary Oliver: Modern
Renewal through Mortal Acceptance,’’ inPembroke, Vol.
20, 1988, pp. 283–88.
Barber, David, Review ofNew and Selected Poems,by
Mary Oliver, inPoetry, Vol. 162, No. 4, July 1993, pp.
233–42.
Beck,EckardtC.,‘‘TheLoveCanalTragedy,’’inEPA
Journal, January 1979, http://www.epa.gov/history/topics/
lovecanal/01.htm (accessed January 2, 2009).
‘‘Black Pond Nature Preserve,’’ atNature Conservancy,
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/
massachusetts/preserves/art5330.html (accessed December
28, 2008).
Burton-Christie, Douglas, ‘‘Nature, Spirit, and Imagina-
tion in the Poetry of Mary Oliver,’’ inCross Currents,
Vol. 46, Spring 1996, pp. 77–87.
Dobyns, Stephen, ‘‘How Does One Live?’’ Review ofNew
and Selected Poems, by Mary Oliver, inNew York Times
Book Review, December 13, 1992, p. BR12.
Dunbar, William, ‘‘Lament for the Makars,’’ inThe
Makars: The Poems of Henryson, Dunbar, and Douglas,
edited by Jacqueline A. Tasioulas, Canongate, 1999, p. 476.The Black Snake