Mary Mary

I'm glad you mentioned repetition. It's one of the recurring devices in Oliver's work that I find really effective. I think there's sometimes an aversion to repetition on the grounds that it's simplistic, when in fact it can be used (as in Oliver) in a very specific, sophisticated way. Life is, after all, repetitive, and so it makes sense that this should be mirrored in the language of a poem. There's also something soothing about it that sometimes does sooth and other times (as in "The Swamp," as in "When Death Comes") proves quite disturbing in the contrast between this lullaby-like rhythm and the poem's stark reality.

Sections 2 and 3 of "Rain" I found especially powerful. Maybe I hadn't read enough Oliver before now, because I was really surprised by their bleakness. Pleasantly surprised. 2 is another great example of repetition proving powerful. I hear in it the falling rain and the trudging men. An atmosphere is evoked, as well as an emotion.

As for the question of looking closely at detail or "glossing over," to reduce Frost's proposition to rather trite terms, I think I understand both desires, but I value the examination of detail far more. The other seems escapist. Escape is sometimes necessary, but I don't know that it should be condoned. Oliver is great because she often manages to combine a resolute look at what is with a broader sense of the whole.

A last note for now: "Hawk" is great. I'd never encountered it, but...wow. The way it ends just before the moment of the kill! I can't help thinking of Gerard Manley Hopkins' "The Windhover," with the twin images of a raptor in the morning. Oliver is of course less flowery than GMH, but I think they're actually similar in the sense that they're both writing with a reverence for the might of the bird they're seeing. Of course, GMH believes god to be responsible, while Oliver doesn't posit a greater force. Still, I think, religion is present, perhaps even in the attention to detail. This honest looking-at is a sort of faith: that the uncovered will have some meaning, some significance. And, of course, it does. To observe! And to then record! No small feats.