Table Of Content“
Bride of Amazement”:
A Buddhist Perspective on
Mary Oliver’s Poetry
G. Ullyatt
Thesis submitted for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in English
at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University
Promoter: Prof N.C.T. Meihuizen
Date of submission: 15 October 2012
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ABSTRACT
The thesis undertakes a Buddhist reading of Mary Oliver’s oeuvre. It seeks to fill a palpable
lacuna in extant criticism of her work, which tends to adopt Romantic, Feminist, Ecocritical, and
Christian viewpoints. Thus far, no criticism has offered a sustained reading of her work from a
specifically Buddhist stance.
The thesis is structured in five chapters. The introductory chapter is followed by a literature
review. The next three chapters are devoted to the Buddhist themes of Mindfulness,
Interconnection, and Impermanence respectively. Each chapter opens with detailed
consideration of its respective theme before moving on to the analysis and amplification of
poems pertinent to it. In addition, the main Buddhist theme of each chapter is subdivided into its
component sub-themes or corollaries.
The main methodological approach to Oliver’s poetry comprises explication de texte as this
makes provision for detailed readings of the texts themselves. Furthermore, this approach has
been adopted because it allows for in-depth exploration of Oliver’s literary devices, three
notable examples of which are anaphora, adéquation, and correspondence. In the course of the
discussion, reference is also made to the influence of Imagism and, more specifically, the
Japanese haiku tradition insofar as they impact on her poetry. This discussion is intended to
give some indication of Oliver’s place within the American poetic tradition.
The predominant subject-matter of her corpus is an all-encompassing view of the natural world
with its birth-life-decay-death cycle. She does not flinch from addressing the harsh and violent
aspects of nature as well as its exuberance and beauty. Her unifying topos is being the bride of
amazement as witness to the natural world. For her readers, this witnessing translates into an
inner, potentially transformative process, ultimately integrating mind and heart.
The thesis concludes with a list of references and a glossary of the Buddhist terms.
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KEYWORDS
Mary Oliver, American poetry, nature, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Feminism,
Ecocriticism, Buddhism, Zen, Mindfulness, Interconnection, Impermanence.
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A NOTE ON LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS
Where other authors are quoted, their original spellings have been retained. There has been no
attempt to standardise words ending in –ise or ize and –sation or –zation, for example. The
same holds true for other American and British spellings.
All Pāli and Sanskrit terms are italicised as are English terms/words that may pose a reading
obstruction because of their unusual spelling such as suchness, thisness, as-it-isness and so
on. In addition to being italicised because of its spelling, the term Nowness is capitalised
because it is employed in this way by its author. Major Buddhist terms and themes are
capitalised; for example, No-self, Mindfulness, and Interconnection, amongst others.
Quite frequently, materials drawn from the World Wide Web present significant pagination
problems. One of these lies in the absence of correlation between the original journal
numbering and formatting and the numbering and formatting of the downloaded document.
Consequently, a number of references throughout the thesis bear the abbreviation “n.p.” to
indicate “no page number”. This should not be confused with other academic uses of “n.p.” to
mean “no publisher”.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank the following people for their contribution to my research. Without some of
them, the process might never have begun and without others it might never have been
completed:
First and foremost, Professor Nicholas Meihuizen for being willing to be my promoter, and for
his superb guidance and continued encouragement as well as the outstanding promptness with
which he provided me with insightful yet incisive feedback on every facet of the thesis. It has
been a privilege to work with such a fine mind.
Professor Wannie Carstens, Head of the School of Languages, and Professor Justus Roux,
Director of the Research Unit, for their support and encouragement at what was a difficult stage
in the process of completing this thesis.
Mrs Elsa van Tonder and Mrs Bernice McKenzie, both of the Research Unit’s staff, for the way
they helped me negotiate the intricacies of the bureaucratic processes that accompany the
research process as well as for their openness and friendliness on all occasions.
Mrs Hester Lombard, Information Librarian at the Ferdinand Postma Library, for her wonderful
efficiency in dealing with all my inquiries so promptly. This enabled me to pursue my research
steadily without delays or interruption.
The University of the North-West for providing me with a doctoral bursary, which enabled me to
undertake this research on a full-time basis for most of its duration.
My sister, Bernice Weingartz, for the gift of Eric Hofstee’s brilliant book, Constructing A Good
Dissertation, which was not only a mine of valuable practical information about the whole thesis
experience, but also helped me to avoid its numerous pitfalls. It could not have come at a more
critical time in my thesis.
My parents, Arina and Heinrich Weingartz, for their unflagging support throughout the entire
journey, particularly during the difficult times.
Jennifer Woodhull, Shambhala Shastri and dharma teacher, at whose tonglen retreat at the
Buddhist Retreat Centre, Ixopo, I first encountered the poetry of Mary Oliver. Thank you so
much for reading ‘Wild Geese’. It literally changed my life.
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My husband, Tony, for being “Mr Fix-it” when I did not know how to proceed or wanted to give
up when extreme difficulties presented themselves during the process. Thanks for your
continued support, encouragement, patience and unflagging belief in my ability to complete the
thesis, no matter what.
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CONTENTS
ABSTRACT i
KEYWORDS ii
A NOTE ON LANGUAGE CONVENTIONS iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv
CONTENTS vi
PROLOGUE 1
CHAPTER 1
Introduction 10
CHAPTER 2
Extant Criticism of Mary Oliver’s Poetry 33
CHAPTER 3
“The Only Chance to Love This World”: Mindfulness 84
CHAPTER 4
“A Thousand Unbreakable Links”: Interconnection 100
CHAPTER 5
“Cottage of Darkness”: Impermanence 152
CONCLUSION 210
BIBLIOGRAPHY 214
A GLOSSARY OF BUDDHIST TERMS 225
1
PROLOGUE
I read my books with diligence, and mounting skill,
and gathering certainty. I read the way a person might swim,
to save his or her life. I wrote that way too.
Oliver (Blue Pastures:65)
Mary Oliver was born in 1935 in Cleveland, Ohio. Playing truant from school provided her the
opportunity to become familiar with the two main passions of her life: nature and poetry. It was
especially Walt Whitman’s poetry that spoke to her in a life-changing way, and he became her
only “friend” at the time:
When the high school I went to experienced a crisis of delinquent student behavior, my
response was to start out for school every morning but to turn most mornings into the
woods instead, with a knapsack of books. Always Whitman’s was among them. My
truancy was extreme, and my parents were warned that I might not graduate. For
whatever reason, they let me continue to go my own way. It was an odd blessing, but a
blessing all the same. Down by the creek, or in the wide pastures I could still find on the
other side of the deep woods, I spent my time with my friend: my brother, my uncle, my
best teacher (Blue Pastures:14).
Coming from difficult circumstances herself, for Oliver, as a child and teenager, nature and
poetry became the avenues of “vanishing” from such circumstances:
Adults can change their circumstances; children cannot. Children are powerless, and in
difficult situations they are the victims of every sorrow and mischance and rage around
them [...] Whatever can take a child beyond such circumstances, therefore, is an
alleviation and a blessing.
I quickly found for myself two such blessings – the natural world, and the world of
writing: literature. These were the gates through which I vanished from a difficult place
(Blue Pastures:63-64).
In 1953, she visited Steepletop, the residence of Edna St. Vincent Millay, and returned later to
live there on a more permanent basis as an assistant to Norma Millay, Edna’s sister. After Oliver
returned to Ohio, she attended Ohio State University for a year, and then Vassar College after
receiving a bursary to study there. Although she did not finish a degree, she made it her life’s
task to hone her writing skills and talents instead. In 1962, she travelled to London and worked
2
at the Mobile Theatre Ltd., writing plays for the Unicorn Theatre for Children. She published her
first volume, No Voyage and Other Poems, in England in 1963.
Oliver’s first academic post included a Mather Visiting Professorship at Case Western Reserve
University in 1980. In 1986, she became the poet-in-residence at Bucknell University. At the
beginning of 1991, she was appointed the Margaret Banister Writer in Residence at Sweet Briar
College, Virginia. She has also been appointed to the Catherine Osgood Foster Chair for
Distinguished Teaching at Bennington College, Vermont (1996). Other institutions where she
has taught include Ohio State University in Columbus and the University of Cincinnati. However,
Provincetown, Massachusetts, remains the most influential setting behind most of her poetry
and essays:
I first came to Provincetown in what is, supposedly, the best of seasons - summer,
everything glittering, the streets crowded, the vacationers cheerful. There is a saying
here: You stay a little while and get sand in your shoes, and you can't leave. When this
happened to me, more than 25 years ago, summer was already leaning into a
spectacular New England fall (Oliver 1991:n.p.).
Oliver is a prolific poet and has won several awards and prizes over the last few decades. The
title poem of No Voyage won the first prize from the Poetry Society of America in 1963. Other
prizes include the Shelley Memorial Award (1970), the Ohioana Book Award (1973), and a
Guggenheim Fellowship (1980). In 1984, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for American
Primitive (1983). In 1990, she received the L.L. Winship / PEN New England Award for House
of Light. Subsequently, she won a National Book Award for New and Selected Poems Volume
One (1992), and, in 1998, was awarded the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. In addition, she
has received honorary doctorates from the following institutions: The Art Institute of Boston
(1998); Dartmouth College (2007), and Tufts University (2008).
As Oliver’s first two volumes are not part of the scope of the study (for reasons explained in
Chapter 1), I shall now provide a brief overview of her oeuvre, starting with Twelve Moons.
Twelve Moons (1979) is the first volume in which Oliver’s very distinctive voice is present, free
of the more formalistic style of her earlier poetry. This volume has a noticeable emphasis on the
animal kingdoms of the natural world which are, most times, inaccessible to humans. Yet, with
this volume, Oliver foregrounds the human longing to become one with these kingdoms,
suggesting that, even at an unconscious level, humans need this interconnection which allows
them to return to their primal selves.
3
With American Primitive (1983), there is a conscious shift:
American Primitive is about joy, certainly. And I hope there is a progression from Twelve
Moons, the earlier book. In Twelve Moons there was not much ego; there was no
separation between observer and surrounding world. American Primitive I wanted to be
a listing of many perceptual joys. But joy that doesn’t end in pleasure. Rather, pleasure
that leads to a sense of humility, and a sense of praise, and a sense of mystery, and a
sense of wonder (Oliver in Weinreb 1991:143).
In addition, Riley remarks on Oliver’s intense questioning and observation in American
Primitive:
Oliver continues the tradition of inserting questions that rest just beneath the surface of
the poem: What role does nature play in humans’ lives? Do humans control nature? Or
does nature control humans? Resting in the primitive American landscapes of
seascapes, salt estuaries, and the pines of Cape Cod, the collection also explores
human needs and desires (2008:274).
An important aspect of Oliver’s poetry – the epiphanous experience – is uncovered by Riley
(2008:274) when she says: “Following the cycle of the seasons from autumn to summer, the
collection reasserts Oliver’s belief that epiphanies – new understandings of the self and how to
live fully – might happen at any time in any place”.
According to Riley (2008:275), Dream Work (1986), Oliver’s seventh collection, contains a vital
thematic shift from American Primitive: “Oliver enacts yet another significant shift from poems
thematically concerned with the connection of humans to the natural world to poems
thematically concerned with how humans often actively prevent such connections from
occurring”.
Oliver (in Weinreb 1991:143) asserts that this volume pays more attention to the human aspect
than perhaps its predecessors: “Dream Work is a more social book, a more worldly book. In
Twelve Moons there was a landscape without a person; in American Primitive there was one
figure; and in Dream Work many figures appear”.
Riley (2008:275) supports Oliver’s assertion that more human themes emerge in Dream Work
than before, especially emphasising the disconnection between nature and humans:
Description:Ecocriticism, Buddhism, Zen, Mindfulness, Interconnection, Impermanence. capitalised; for example, No-self, Mindfulness, and Interconnection,
