heir relaxed rhythms and stripped-down diction, Oliver's poems constitute a complex, profound, and very active act of attention in which the object under observation is not so much the individual nighthawk, walking stick, or oak tree as it is the human act of attention itself.
The poems chronicle the give and take of Oliver's relationship with the world around her. She takes care not to disturb the world unduly. But for whatever limited effect she has on the things she sees (a 'possum plays dead, a snake threatens, she plants acorns) the life she observes penetrates deeply into her. Because her mind constructs metaphors, makes connections, and is moved by the intrinsic connection between herself and nature, what she sees does not leave her untouched. She reserves her greatest delight for the moments in which she is astonished. But even the mundane events in the majority of the poems have a piercing emotional and intellectual impact that is the fruit, the reward of careful attention.
At times Oliver's eagerness to commit herself to looking can itself become the topic of a poem. In "Rumor of Moose in the Long Twilight of New Hampshire" Oliver, like a tourist, has been alerted to the possibility of seeing the moose that neighbors have spotted. This poem, unlike the great majority of them, does not treat something Oliver has seen. Instead it features the report of the neighbors while the poet, and others, sit in the twilight eagerly waiting for a glimpse of the creature. The poem features an unusual layout, with most odd-numbered lines beginning at the left margin and only reaching halfway across the page. They alternate with lines that begin at the mid-point on the page. The poem can be read, therefore, as if it is the report of the neighbors being zealously encouraged and supplemented by those who only hope to see the moose. Or the disjointedness of the line positions could signal a reading in which the eager individua...