Thank you for this! The Mary Oliver slander is saddening. I'm afraid we've confused 'smarter' with more wise. We've reduced 'unadorned' to simplistic.
What I admire most about Oliver is her ability to distill the spiritual hunger that is often so amorphous to us, and often so, so difficult to articulate. She is able to communicate this to us with a startling plainness, as if the truth had been apparent all along.
And yes - yes to earnestness! God knows we could use more of it these days.
I adore Mary Oliver's work and have for years. Mourned her passing in 2019. In poet Mary Oliver’s 2004 lovely collection of essays _Long Life_, dedicated to her partner before Molly passed in 2005, Oliver comments on life and its questions: “All through our gliding journey, on this day as on so many others, a little song runs through my mind, I say a song because it passes musically, but it is really just words, a thought that is neither strange nor complex. In fact, how strange it would be NOT to think it—not to have such music inside one’s head and body, on such an afternoon. What does it mean, say the words, that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?”
Man, this is so good. There's a lot going on with this Oliver controversy, much of which you covered beautifully. Thank you for doing the work of thinking this thing through.
Here are a couple additional points that come to mind: 1) The sickly state of the academy--its anemic English departments, its gnosticism, it commitment to ideology before all else. If the academy is the mothership of highbrow culture, I gotta say, they're doing Oliver a service by disowning her. 2) Only mediocre thinkers and artists are afraid of being understood. Really great artists and thinkers risk clarity (their ideas can withstand it). 3) Chris Wiman (poet, essayist) once made a distinction I've come to love...He says there's a difference between plain language and common language. Common language is often lifeless. It's a placeholder, like the cliche; whereas plain language is 'accessible' but charged with the vitality of attention and intelligence. Mary Oliver is a poet of plain but living language. Her poems are compositions of attention and a mind humbly bent towards the world, watching, listening.
I don't actually know what constitutes "highbrow" literature (its placement in the canon, obscurity, the ego-lift a person feels when speaking knowingly about it?), but if literary awards are indicative of anything I'd guess that highbrow literature is easier to theorize--in other words, it's easier to speak abstractly about (the mind not bent in attention but playing at lordship over the world). So, yeah, in that case Oliver isn't highbrow. Thank God.
Thank again for your thoughts. I just became a subscriber!
i'm really glad you've attempted here to rehabilitate Mary Oliver as poet of obvious brilliance. i did suffer a bit from that meme that she wasn't a real, or good poet, but i flatter myself that i did, in time, realise that that simply wasn't true - and before i read this! anyway, i thought this a truly excellent piece, cheers.
I first heard Wild Geese in an interview with David Whyte, who is likewise found on ted talks and tea towels but who likewise brings poetry to the common reader. What do you make of him?
Thanks so much for this. I’d somehow never read Mary Oliver.
You raise a really interesting question - why does poetry have to be highbrow to be respected?
Some of her poems are great. But let’s say the average is just ok. Curious for theories on how we got to this point. What ever happened to - good, on its level. Why can’t we have Beethoven and Abba? (who I’ve realized are really good, by the way).
Another Mary Oliver latecomer here. I find her simple and specific observations sublime. Surely at this time when nature is so threatened, something that brings us closer should be cherished.
I wondered if something might be happening with you on this front when -- after we chatted about it -- you started posting some of her poems on twitter, and all your picks were really subtle. Much stronger choices than many of those I saw that first day. I almost replied to you about that! But I was also really starting to wonder about what exactly it was that made me, and clearly MANY OTHER PEOPLE, so unhappy about the description "middlebrow". As much as everyone wants to say it's totally cool to be middlebrow, evidently, in fact, we feel that it is not. I really got a lot out of your investigation of what it actually means to be middlebrow anyway. I'm still turning all of this over in my mind to be honest. I've also realised I'm probably a little more middlebrow than I had thought! I now wonder if calling ourselves highbrow, or seeking to be highbrow, is a way to defend against the pain of being misunderstood (since the demanding nature of highbrow work makes it easy to misunderstand) -- if that label is taken away from us, we feel a bit defenceless.
Great article. I too only learned of her not long ago but have enjoyed all her work that I have so far read! Must seek out some of her books. A poet is a poet is a poet on whatever level they are. Enjoy who you want too and don't believe every negative comment. Poetry has changed its tone and style a lot in recent years and I don't like/understand all of it but that doesn't mean it is wrong or middlebrow/highbrow or in the gutter!!
Thank you for this, for the reminder of why “Summer Day” is such a great poem, and for the several st the end that are new to me. I read “In Blackwater Woods” at my mother’s memorial. Another with final lines that sear and soothe the soul.
IN BLACKWATER WOODS
Mary Oliver
Look, the trees are turning
their own bodies into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders
of the ponds.
and every pond, no matter what its name is, is
nameless now. Every year everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side
is salvation
whose meaning
none of us will ever know. To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
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
Thank you for this! The Mary Oliver slander is saddening. I'm afraid we've confused 'smarter' with more wise. We've reduced 'unadorned' to simplistic.
What I admire most about Oliver is her ability to distill the spiritual hunger that is often so amorphous to us, and often so, so difficult to articulate. She is able to communicate this to us with a startling plainness, as if the truth had been apparent all along.
And yes - yes to earnestness! God knows we could use more of it these days.
I adore Mary Oliver's work and have for years. Mourned her passing in 2019. In poet Mary Oliver’s 2004 lovely collection of essays _Long Life_, dedicated to her partner before Molly passed in 2005, Oliver comments on life and its questions: “All through our gliding journey, on this day as on so many others, a little song runs through my mind, I say a song because it passes musically, but it is really just words, a thought that is neither strange nor complex. In fact, how strange it would be NOT to think it—not to have such music inside one’s head and body, on such an afternoon. What does it mean, say the words, that the earth is so beautiful? And what shall I do about it? What is the gift that I should bring to the world? What is the life that I should live?”
Man, this is so good. There's a lot going on with this Oliver controversy, much of which you covered beautifully. Thank you for doing the work of thinking this thing through.
Here are a couple additional points that come to mind: 1) The sickly state of the academy--its anemic English departments, its gnosticism, it commitment to ideology before all else. If the academy is the mothership of highbrow culture, I gotta say, they're doing Oliver a service by disowning her. 2) Only mediocre thinkers and artists are afraid of being understood. Really great artists and thinkers risk clarity (their ideas can withstand it). 3) Chris Wiman (poet, essayist) once made a distinction I've come to love...He says there's a difference between plain language and common language. Common language is often lifeless. It's a placeholder, like the cliche; whereas plain language is 'accessible' but charged with the vitality of attention and intelligence. Mary Oliver is a poet of plain but living language. Her poems are compositions of attention and a mind humbly bent towards the world, watching, listening.
I don't actually know what constitutes "highbrow" literature (its placement in the canon, obscurity, the ego-lift a person feels when speaking knowingly about it?), but if literary awards are indicative of anything I'd guess that highbrow literature is easier to theorize--in other words, it's easier to speak abstractly about (the mind not bent in attention but playing at lordship over the world). So, yeah, in that case Oliver isn't highbrow. Thank God.
Thank again for your thoughts. I just became a subscriber!
i'm really glad you've attempted here to rehabilitate Mary Oliver as poet of obvious brilliance. i did suffer a bit from that meme that she wasn't a real, or good poet, but i flatter myself that i did, in time, realise that that simply wasn't true - and before i read this! anyway, i thought this a truly excellent piece, cheers.
PS I’m teaching Oliver in the fall (for the first time—new course for me. Your piece will be a great way to start the conversations …
I first heard Wild Geese in an interview with David Whyte, who is likewise found on ted talks and tea towels but who likewise brings poetry to the common reader. What do you make of him?
Thanks so much for this. I’d somehow never read Mary Oliver.
You raise a really interesting question - why does poetry have to be highbrow to be respected?
Some of her poems are great. But let’s say the average is just ok. Curious for theories on how we got to this point. What ever happened to - good, on its level. Why can’t we have Beethoven and Abba? (who I’ve realized are really good, by the way).
I've come late to Mary Oliver's party, as I've posted about, but I'm here to stay. I'm a fan.
Beautiful defense of moving poetry with lyrical combinations that are not trite. Nor are they middlebrow.
Another Mary Oliver latecomer here. I find her simple and specific observations sublime. Surely at this time when nature is so threatened, something that brings us closer should be cherished.
I dare anyone to read a single one of her poems that allude to the darkness of her childhood and tell me she didn’t have it in her.
She wasn’t just good — she was one of the best.
Wowww the people yearn for Mary Oliver posting!
I wondered if something might be happening with you on this front when -- after we chatted about it -- you started posting some of her poems on twitter, and all your picks were really subtle. Much stronger choices than many of those I saw that first day. I almost replied to you about that! But I was also really starting to wonder about what exactly it was that made me, and clearly MANY OTHER PEOPLE, so unhappy about the description "middlebrow". As much as everyone wants to say it's totally cool to be middlebrow, evidently, in fact, we feel that it is not. I really got a lot out of your investigation of what it actually means to be middlebrow anyway. I'm still turning all of this over in my mind to be honest. I've also realised I'm probably a little more middlebrow than I had thought! I now wonder if calling ourselves highbrow, or seeking to be highbrow, is a way to defend against the pain of being misunderstood (since the demanding nature of highbrow work makes it easy to misunderstand) -- if that label is taken away from us, we feel a bit defenceless.
Thank you for linking to my substack :) <3
Great article. I too only learned of her not long ago but have enjoyed all her work that I have so far read! Must seek out some of her books. A poet is a poet is a poet on whatever level they are. Enjoy who you want too and don't believe every negative comment. Poetry has changed its tone and style a lot in recent years and I don't like/understand all of it but that doesn't mean it is wrong or middlebrow/highbrow or in the gutter!!
Thank you for this, for the reminder of why “Summer Day” is such a great poem, and for the several st the end that are new to me. I read “In Blackwater Woods” at my mother’s memorial. Another with final lines that sear and soothe the soul.
IN BLACKWATER WOODS
Mary Oliver
Look, the trees are turning
their own bodies into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich fragrance of cinnamon and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over the blue shoulders
of the ponds.
and every pond, no matter what its name is, is
nameless now. Every year everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires and the black river of loss whose other side
is salvation
whose meaning
none of us will ever know. To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
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
Wonderful essay. You chose the poems that everyone should read. They are beautiful as Scripture, and should be read as such.
Yes