The Truro Bear and Other Adventures: Poems and Essays

by Mary Oliver

Book Overview

From a poet who teaches us the beauty and magic of the natural world comes a reminder that this world includes "the creatures, with their / thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze. Their / infallible sense of what their lives / are meant to be."

In The Truro Bear and Other Adventures, Mary Oliver brings together ten new poems, thirty-five of her classic poems, and two essays, all about mammals, insects, and reptiles. The award-winning poet considers beasts of all kinds: bears, snakes, spiders, porcupines, humpback whales, hermit crabs, and, of course, her beloved and disobedient little dog, Percy, who appears and even speaks in thirteen poems, the closing section of this volume.

As Ren e Loth has observed in the Boston Globe, "Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observations of the natural world . . . She teaches us the profound act of paying attention."

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
--Mary Oliver, "The Summer Day" (one of the poems in this volume)

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807068845
• ISBN13: 9780807068847
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The Truro Bear and Other Adventures

My husband presented this book to me when I told him about our pregnancy. He brought it to the hospital, and when our son was brought to us after delivery, he proceeded to read several very memorable poems to him. Mary Oliver writes brilliantly. Her poems are inspirational and full of nostalgia and symbolism. Over the past year we have purchased and enjoyed several other of her books, including Red Bird and Twelve Moons. My recent purchase of The Truro Bear and Other Adventures was to donate to Children's Hospital, NICU, for parents to read to their newborns.

Another special volume

MAry Oliver never disappoints. I wasn't sure about having essays as well as poems but they were also wonderful. The Truro Bear is a subtle and wonderful poem which ends "when has happiness ever required much evidence to begin its leaf-green breathing?"

The Truro Bear and Other Adventures

This is a beautiful book by Mary Oliver. Her poetry is outstanding, exceptional. Read The Summer Day from this book and you'll see what I mean.