"On the subject of writing poetry, Oliver is the most enlightened and enlightening author I have read." -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
From the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award comes Winter Hours, Mary Oliver's most personal book yet. And never more so than in this extraordinary and engaging gathering of nine essays, a work of reflective memoir accompanied by a brief selection of new prose poems and poems.
With the grace and precision that have won her legions of admirers, Oliver talks here of turtle eggs and housebuilding, of her surprise at an unexpected whistling she hears, of the "thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else." She talks of her own poems and, in a series of brilliant literary essays, of some of her favorite poets: Poe, writing of "our inescapable destiny," Frost and his ability to convey at once that "everything is all right, and everything is not all right," the "unmistakably joyful" Hopkins, and Whitman, seeking through his poetry "the replication of a miracle." And Oliver offers us a glimpse as well of her "private and natural self—something that must in the future be taken into consideration by any who would claim to know me."
In prose as precise and graceful as her poetry, Oliver invites readers to consider:
- The Writer’s Craft: A look inside the poet’s workshop, from the strange labor of sitting still to the joyous act of building a house with salvaged wood.
- Profound Nature Writing: Meditations on the wildness of the world, from the secret life of turtles to the “thousand unbreakable links” that connect us to everything.
- Essays on the Masters: Illuminating studies of the poets who shaped her, including the inescapable destinies of Poe, the quiet distress of Frost, and the joyful praise of Hopkins.
- A Private Self: Oliver’s most personal work, offering a rare glimpse into the “private and natural self” behind the celebrated poems.