Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver
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Book Reviews of Thirst: Poems
Book Review: Deist drift
Summary: 2 Stars
`Nature poetry' at its best is matching words and rhythms with life's infinite diversity of sounds and sights. It is a physical struggle of wit and often humour; it is raw, jarring, and at times red in tooth and claw. Mary Oliver has been a master of it - see her encounters with owls.
There is inherent danger with `nature poetry'. When words fail the poet he may be tempted to replace her curiosity with wonder, astonishment, and eventually mushy spirituality, or even mystic unity. As such poetry moves from long argument to disembodied deist sentiment it loses dimensions - it becomes kitsch (as Kundera would opine).
Mary Oliver's Thirst is the record of such deist drift and the result is disappointing. She does not have the frenzy mysticism of a Rumi. She does not affirm her unconditional love of God like St. Francis Hers is consolative - hence instrumental - poetry in a minor key.
Book Review: Disappointingly Party Line
Summary: 2 Stars
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. It was disappointing to read this collection of trite Christian verse. Whereas her past poems suggested an almost pagan, pantheistic spiritual fervor for nature, these poems drip with the cliches of Christendom: god, the "Lord," and JC himself. I found myself yearning for the broader, more universal spirituality of Oliver's older poems. I am less interested in this recent work than in her previous work.Book Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. Everthing I have read of hers before this book was just great. This book was very disappointing and is not at the level of her past work.