From geese to crabs to insects to nearly an entire book about her dog, the poet Mary Oliver has turned again and again to animals and to the wilderness to look for meaning. Ruth Franklin wrote in The New Yorker about “Devotions,” a new collection of Oliver’s work. Franklin spoke with The New Yorker’s David Haglund about the directness of Oliver’s poetic voice and her concern with spirituality. Those traits, they speculate, may have dampened the reception of Oliver’s work by some critics, even as Oliver has won the hearts of readers (along with the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award).
Recordings of Oliver reading “The Summer Day” and “Mornings at Blackwater” in 2012 are used courtesy of the 92nd Street Y, in New York.
