Review – Dream Work

Dream Workby Mary OliverGenres: Poetry Pages: 96 Rating: Synopsis: Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems originally published in 1986, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Oliver’s American Primitive, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1983. The depth and diversity of perceptual awareness, so steadfast and radiant in American Primitive, continues in Dream Work. Additionally, she has turned her attention in these poems to the solitary and difficult labors of the spirit, to accepting the truth about one’s personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the failures of human relationships. I liked Dream Work a bit more than A Thousand Mornings, but I’ve developed such high hopes for Mary Oliver’s poetry, and this collection didn’t quite hit the spot either. There were more poems that I loved here, at least, and as always the whole thing is suffused with her love of the world exactly as it is, her attention to detail, and her ability to find…