The conversation between dogs and Oliver continues in such a manner it is easy to forget the present personification, unless the reader is satisfied with the possibility that after some time together a look or motion can be interpreted as full statements or inquisitions, same as in human relationships as friends and lovers grow old together. This book does so much more than it might appear to be doing.
And people get discouraged, so theyĪ testament to modern communication, surely, and coming from dog to person no less (perhaps a jab at our inability or unwillingness to notice our failings at meaningful connection in today’s technological society), though it is more interesting and important to note that human experience is so artfully infused with the seemingly basic suggestion of Dog Songs paying homage to the love of animal(s). Little box people hold in their hands theseĭays. Someone can look like they are but they’re Social commentaries are made as well, through Oliver’s dog Ricky explaining a notion to her in “Ricky Talks About Talking”: Short life, yet thoroughly rejoiced in each day.įor he listened to poems as well as love-talk. In “For I Will Consider My Dog Percy” she writes:įor he came to me impaired and therefore certain of In addition to this sincere analysis of a moment or prolonged situation of life and thought and routine and habit, so is there a wealth of connectivity expressed between Oliver and one of many of her dogs that have inhabited her heart and life over the years. Thinking how grateful I am for the moon’s The poems stretch forward contagiously from here on, with tones of the human experience directly expressed, as in “The Sweetness of Dogs”: My favorite poem from Dog Songs came early in the book with “Her Grave.” And as I historically tend away from too much divulgence regarding those poems that stand out personally, I will offer its elements of loss, companionship, stark imagery and an existential yearning for answers to the unanswerable, though Oliver succeeds in her efforts to fearlessly try. A truly lovely poem likely to stir an attentive reader into identifying a shift in the collection, Oliver writes:
By “Luke,” Dog Songs has found itself and is suddenly prepared to turn over the power of its content. And by “Every Dog’s Story” it can be assumed a book of reflection/meditation by a loved American poet is what we as Reader have as addition to the body of Mary Oliver’s work:īut sometimes dreams are dark and wild and creepyĪnd I wake and am afraid, though I don’t know why.īut here is also in the beginning an opportunity, if recognized and appreciated, to feed a curiosity not so simply extracted from the simplicity of the poems themselves: Can this book be read as “human songs” as well? The answer is a resounding, inarguable Yes. In “How It Is With Us, And How It Is With Them,” a second possible theme (apart from the book being about dogs) appears for discussion:Īn argument arises for dogs, if not pets in general, as necessity versus the craze of the external and solitary world. In “How It Begins” the book, well, begins with the first lines: The beginning of the collection takes its time stepping to its most fully realized self. What the title, cover and inside jacket does not explain is the far-reaching aspects of the human component of the poems within.
One dog story soundtrack series#
Oliver’s latest collection, Dog Songs, is the perfect example.Ī small book such as Dog Songs can be completely revealed in a careless review, but it must be stated that the collection is-on the surface-indeed a series of poems about dogs. But Mary Oliver manages a universal nature to her work which seems to offer something to any reader of poetry. There is no one poetry style that has a sure universality to it some readers seek mind-bending abstraction, or word play in some kind of form or message discovered through a hunt across the page, whereas many others prefer specific and obvious themes and still others pursue a certain type of “voice” and/or tempered use of language.
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