New and Selected Poems was published by Beacon Press in 1992, won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1992, and became one of the bestselling poetry books in American history. It draws from Oliver’s first seven collections and adds new work, creating the definitive single-volume introduction to her poetry. It contains “Wild Geese” and “The Summer Day” — two of the most frequently quoted poems of the late twentieth century — and demonstrates the full range of a poet who was simultaneously America’s most popular and one of its most genuinely gifted.
The Poems
“Wild Geese” — Oliver’s most famous single poem: “You do not have to be good. / You do not have to walk on your knees / for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. / You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.” These lines have been read at more weddings, funerals, and therapy sessions than any other contemporary American poem.
“The Summer Day” — ending with the question that became Oliver’s signature: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?”
“When Death Comes” — Oliver confronting mortality with her characteristic directness: “When it’s over, I want to say: all my life / I was a bride married to amazement.”
“The Black Walnut Tree” — a rare narrative poem about deciding whether to sell the family walnut tree, weighing practical need against emotional connection.
“Sleeping in the Forest” — the dissolving of self into nature rendered as literal narrative: “I thought the earth / remembered me, she / took me back so tenderly.”
Significance
The National Book Award and the book’s extraordinary sales (it has remained in print and on bestseller lists for three decades) confirmed Oliver’s unique position in American poetry: a serious, National Book Award-winning poet who sold like a novelist, who was read by people who read no other poetry, who became a cultural phenomenon without the academy’s approval.
Critics have been divided. Harold Bloom included her in his Western Canon. Other academic critics found her work too accessible, too optimistic, too willing to offer consolation. Her readers — numbered in millions — cared nothing for this debate.
Collecting New and Selected Poems
First edition (Beacon Press, Boston, 1992): Trade paperback original (hardcover edition simultaneous but scarce).
Identification points:
- Beacon Press imprint
- “First edition” stated
- 255 pages
Market values: Hardcover first editions bring $200–$600. The hardcover printing was very small.
Signed copies: $500–$1,500. Oliver signed at readings.
Trade paperback first: $30–$75.
Volume Two (2005) is a separate collecting target, containing work from 1992-2005.
The book’s function as the Oliver gateway — the volume recommended to anyone who wants to know her work — ensures permanent demand.