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ericispublius's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
5.0
A beautiful collection of works that is grounding and makes you cherish a sunrise; best read outdoors on a rock and under a tree.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Moderate: Death
Minor: Suicide
its_cold_'s review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
3.5
i find it very difficult to rate poetry or short story collections, and especially so in the case of Mary Oliver’s
DEVOTIONS.
i had quite a strange experience reading Devotions.
for the first maybe 150–200 pages i was into it, really enjoying it, even.
then the middle (pages 200-300-ish) i REALLY did not enjoy. i even strongly considered DNFing.
but i did push through, and finally around 300 or 350 pages in i started really loving it again.
so, if you’re struggling with the middle, or even quit because of it, i strongly encourage you to try and push through it, or skip it if you need to, but just get to the last two hundred-ish pages.
i connected to so many of Mary Oliver’s poems. this collection has so many gorgeous, eloquently written poems, but on the other hand it also had many very elementary level-not-really-poetry-poems that i really did not enjoy laboring through.
however, i enjoyed (and even loved!) enough poems that i would still recommend this, especially is you’re looking to get into poetry, as Mary Oliver’s work is pretty easy to understand, and that i plan to read more of her works.
i’ll probably try to read “Upstream” next.
now, one of my favorite Mary Oliver quotes (and just a favorite quote in general):
“He is exactly the poem i wanted to write.”
DEVOTIONS.
i had quite a strange experience reading Devotions.
for the first maybe 150–200 pages i was into it, really enjoying it, even.
then the middle (pages 200-300-ish) i REALLY did not enjoy. i even strongly considered DNFing.
but i did push through, and finally around 300 or 350 pages in i started really loving it again.
so, if you’re struggling with the middle, or even quit because of it, i strongly encourage you to try and push through it, or skip it if you need to, but just get to the last two hundred-ish pages.
i connected to so many of Mary Oliver’s poems. this collection has so many gorgeous, eloquently written poems, but on the other hand it also had many very elementary level-not-really-poetry-poems that i really did not enjoy laboring through.
however, i enjoyed (and even loved!) enough poems that i would still recommend this, especially is you’re looking to get into poetry, as Mary Oliver’s work is pretty easy to understand, and that i plan to read more of her works.
i’ll probably try to read “Upstream” next.
now, one of my favorite Mary Oliver quotes (and just a favorite quote in general):
“He is exactly the poem i wanted to write.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide
one poem towards the end of the book is written about a suicide, and the collection talks several times about grief and death, but nothing graphic.thecozyrogue's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Suicide and Death of parent
prynne31's review
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
So interesting to see such a great representation of an author's ouvre. A bit exhausting too.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Animal death
Minor: Suicide
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