Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Blue Iris : Poems and Essays - Mary Oliver
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Blue Iris

Poems and Essays

By: Mary Oliver

Hardcover | 15 September 2004

At a Glance

Hardcover


$49.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.44 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

An elegant collection of poetry and prose about flowers, trees, and plants of all sorts; a companion to Owls and Other Fantasies
Owls and Other Fantasies, Mary Oliver's poems and essays about birds, was one of the best-selling volumes of poetry of 2003 and a Book Sense 76 selection. Blue Iris, Oliver's new collection, is designed to be a companion to that volume. Elegantly illustrated, Blue Iris brings together ten new poems, two dozen of Mary Oliver's favorite poems, and two previously unpublished essays. The poet considers roses, of course, and poppies and peonies; lilies and morning glories; the thick-bodied black oak and the fragrant white pine; the tall sunflower and the slender bean.
James Dickey has said of her, "Far beneath the surface-flash of linguistic effect, Mary Oliver works her quiet and mysterious spell. It is a true spell, unlike any other poet's, the enchantment of the true maker." In Blue Iris, she has captured with breathtaking clarity the "true enchantment" and "mysterious spell" of flowers, weeds, plants, and trees and their magnetic hold on us.
Industry Reviews
Blue Iris fortuitously offers an extended sequence and new contexts for a writer whose precise eye and instinct for surprising images have made her one of the best practitioners of the lyrical revelation . . . Oliver's often quiet persona almost always rides a storm of discovery . . . Oliver continues to earn applause and admiration for continuing to provide redemptive mediation and supple praises for nature in a time when so much is under threat. --R. T. Smith, Shenandoah

A thematic bouquet about plants and the creatures that live among them . . . Punctuated by illustrations derived from electronically scanned flower specimens, it is a handsome book filled with excellent work. --Jay Rogoff, Southern Review

These 32 poems and four essays offer rich meditations on flowers in nature, showing how plant life reflects the life of the human heart . . . A companion to Oliver's recent Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays, this work presents poetry in free verse, which Oliver has perfected in all of its musicality and rhythm. --Library Journal

More in Poetry

Japanese Haiku for Cat Lovers - Manda

RRP $29.99

$26.75

11%
OFF
I don't Think I'm Straight : Queer poems to celebrate you - Isabella Dorta
Dropbear : Winner of the 2022 Stella Prize - Evelyn Araluen

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
The Prophet : Penguin Classics Hardcover - Kahlil Gibran

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
Heroes : The myths of the Ancient Greek heroes retold - Stephen Fry
Violet Bent Backwards Over the Grass : Poems - Lana Del Rey

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Dog Songs : Poems - Mary Oliver

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
The Spiritual Poems of Rumi : Translated by Nader Khalili - Rumi
The Rot - Evelyn Araluen

Paperback

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
Best of Australian Poems 2025 : Best of Australian Poems - Nam Le
Beautiful Changelings - Maxine Beneba Clarke

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF
Complete Poems Of Banjo Paterson - A. B. Paterson

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Iliad - Homer

Paperback

RRP $32.95

$26.99

18%
OFF
You Hung the Moon : A Love Letter Between Mother and Child - Jessica Urlichs
Love Poems - Rupi Kaur

Hardcover

RRP $35.00

$28.75

18%
OFF
The Complete Poems of John Keats : Wordsworth Poetry Library - John Keats