美国国家公共电台 NPR Beloved Poet Mary Oliver, Who Believed Poetry 'Mustn't Be Fancy,' Dies At 83

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

The beloved poet Mary Oliver has died. During her lifetime, Oliver accomplished¹ something few poets ever do. She not only made a living writing poetry. She was also a bestseller. Her poems often explore the link between nature and the spiritual world, and she won many awards for them. She died today of lymphoma at her home in Florida at 83 years old. NPR's Lynn Neary has this remembrance.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE²: Mary Oliver got a lot of her ideas for poems during long walks. That was a habit she developed as a kid growing up in rural Ohio. It was not a happy childhood. She said she was sexually abused and suffered from parental³ neglect. But as she told NPR in 2012, she found refuge in two great passions which lasted her entire life.

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MARY OLIVER: The two things I loved from a very early age were the natural world and dead poets, which were...

RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: (Laughter).

OLIVER: ...My pals⁴ when I was a kid.

NEARY: Oliver published her first collection "No Voyage And Other Poems" at the age of 28. She went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. But writer Ruth Franklin says such recognition probably wasn't that important to Oliver.

RUTH FRANKLIN: I always had a sense of her as somebody who was just interested in following her own path, both spiritually and poetically⁵.

NEARY: In writing about Oliver's book "Devotions" for The New Yorker, Franklin said Oliver was not always appreciated by critics. But she was one of the country's most popular poets, and Franklin says there was a reason for that.

FRANKLIN: Mary Oliver isn't a difficult poet. Her work is incredibly accessible, and I think that's what makes her so beloved by so many people. It doesn't feel like you have to take a seminar in order to understand Mary Oliver's poetry. She's speaking directly to you as a human being.

NEARY: Oliver told NPR that simplicity⁶ was important to her.

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OLIVER: Poetry, to be understood, must be clear. It mustn't be fancy. I have the feeling that a lot of poets writing now - that they sort of tap dance through it. I always feel that whatever isn't necessary should not be in the poem.

NEARY: Oliver lived for many years in Provincetown, Mass., with the love of her life, the photographer Molly Malone Cook. She continued her habit of taking long walks which often inspired her poems. She wrote of such a walk in "The Summer Day."

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OLIVER: (Reading) I don't know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn't everything die at last and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

NEARY: Many of Oliver's poems are a joyful⁷ celebration of nature, but she also wrote about the abuse she suffered as a child and her first brush with death from lung cancer. All of Oliver's work, says Ruth Franklin, was infused with a deep spirituality.

FRANKLIN: The way she writes these poems that feel like prayers - she channels the voice of somebody who it seems might possibly have access to God. I think her work does give a sense of someone who is in tune⁸ with the deepest mysteries of the universe.

NEARY: In her poem "When Death Comes," Oliver wrote this about the inevitable⁹. (Reading) When it's over, I want to say, all of my life, I was a bride married to amazement¹⁰. Lynn Neary, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF KRIS BOWERS' "WHAT'S STOPPING US")

1 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 parental   

adj.父母的；父的；母的

参考例句：

• He encourages parental involvement in the running of school.他鼓励学生家长参与学校的管理。
• Children always revolt against parental disciplines.孩子们总是反抗父母的管束。

4 pals   

n.朋友( pal的名词复数 )；老兄；小子；（对男子的不友好的称呼）家伙

参考例句：

• We've been pals for years. 我们是多年的哥们儿了。
• CD 8 positive cells remarkably increased in PALS and RP(P CD8+细胞在再生脾PALS和RP内均明显增加(P 来自互联网

5 poetically   

adv.有诗意地，用韵文

参考例句：

• Life is poetically compared to the morning dew. 在诗歌中，人生被比喻为朝露。 来自辞典例句
• Poetically, Midsummer's Eve begins in flowers and ends in fire. 仲夏节是富有诗意的节日，它以鲜花领航，在篝火旁完美落幕。 来自互联网

6 simplicity   

n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯

参考例句：

• She dressed with elegant simplicity.她穿着朴素高雅。
• The beauty of this plan is its simplicity.简明扼要是这个计划的一大特点。

7 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

8 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

9 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

10 amazement   

n.惊奇，惊讶

参考例句：

• All those around him looked at him with amazement.周围的人都对他投射出惊异的眼光。
• He looked at me in blank amazement.他带着迷茫惊诧的神情望着我。