Pathfinder for the Poet:

Mary Oliver

Who is she?

Mary Oliver is a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, whose perceptive, luminous poems of renewal in nature and ourselves, appear on the Web with increasing frequency. For many people, her poetic voice, influenced by, as she says "love of the wild world, love of literature and love for and from another person" is a newly discovered joy. For many others, each new book of poems or prose is eagerly awaited and sought after.The purpose of this page is to illustrate how her poems are being used but mostly to encourage you to buy her books and keep them in print.

Why a pathfinder?

Looking for her Poems

1. Search Engines are useful to do this
   • You can try Altavista : a simple search "mary oliver" found
   • The Summer Day and Fish
   • The Buddha's Last Instruction
   • The Journey (these four poems are all in personal home pages)
   • Mockingbirds -in The Atlantic Monthly
   • Altavista and Webcrawler both found two sites with several poems which are
   • Mary Oliver's page on RedFrog - Poems from the Planet Earth.
     You can also view the RedFrog Index - a huge list of poets who write about the environment.
   • Soft Animal: The Poetry of Mary Oliver - a personal home page entirely devoted to this poet
   • But I also suggest Dogpile: which searches 25 search engines at once
     and using the names of the poems if you already know them
     eg: "mary oliver" and "wild geese" on Dogpile, easily located
   • The poem Wild geese on a home page
     
   • and in Soft Animal: The Poetry of Mary Oliver
   eg: "mary oliver" and death on Dogpile didn't find the text but found links to special reviews of the poems
   • When Death Comes and
   • University Hospital, Boston
     These two are from a database of short reviews on how to use poetry in a hospice type setting.
2. Directories
   • Yahoo -at Yahoo/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Poetry/Poets has a listing for Mary Oliver.
     • At the moment, this only has the Soft Animal site, but this Yahoo page will probably grow.

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Looking for her Books

1. Search Engines are useful here too
   • Altavista's Results Screen using a search on her name links directly to
     • Amazon.com a comprehensive online bookstore which lists many of her books.
       You can find out publishers, ordering details and read online reviews.
       Check there for biographies and interviews at a later date.
   • Then, since this is a "needle in a haystack" search I suggest using
     Dogpile: covering 25 search engines at once and using the names of her publishers,
     Beacon Press, Harcourt Brace, Houghton Mifflin and others, or her books if you know them
     eg: "mary oliver" and "american primitive" found
   • Poetry Daily - a list of her many books and ordering info
   eg. "mary oliver" and "houghton mifflin" found
   • Salon Magazine's preview/review of West Wind and ordering details
   • WordsWorth's review of West Wind, again with ordering details
   • The Houghton Mifflin Bookstore - publishers of West Wind
   • Fullcircle Bookstore
   - a brief review from a feminist bookstore
2. Directories
   • Yahoo -at
     • Yahoo/Business and Economy/Companies/Publishing/ or
     • Yahoo/Business and Economy/Companies/Books/ are good starting points.

1. Directories
   • Yahoo
   can be used to locate regional information eg:
   • Yahoo/Regional/US States/Vermont/ Cities/Bennington/Education/ Bennington College
   
   located a faculty listing for Mary Oliver and a brief but reliable biography.
   • Yahoo/Regional/USStates/Massachusetts/Cities/Provincetown for information on her home town.
   
   
2. Search Engines like Altavista would be useful for information on:
   • The Provincetown poets:
     • The Provincetown Arts magazine has a cover devoted to Mary Oliver.
       The Web site has details for ordering the print version of the magazine.
   • Her local environment
   • The Biology of Cape Cod tells all about the plant and animals of the area
   • The Cape Cod National Seashore covers more tourist information
   • The Pulitzer Prize
   • The official Pulitzer Prize Archive is developing an archive of past winners work. Check here later.
   
   
3. Finally: Mary Oliver is one of the poets indexed in the new Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry