Mary Oliver

1935–2019 · American poet, Pulitzer Prize winner

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) won the Pulitzer Prize for American Primitive (1983) and the National Book Award for New and Selected Poems (1992). She wrote plainly and closely about the natural world — grasshoppers, ponds, geese, mornings — and turned that attention into questions about how a person ought to live. That combination made her one of the most quoted poets in America, and one of the most frequently misquoted: her lines travel far past her books, onto cards, headstones and slides, usually trimmed.

Traced to source

1 quote we’ve traced

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Verified

Did they really say it?

Thought Mary Oliver said something else?

Type a quote you think Mary Oliver said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.