Dream Work, a collection of forty-five poems, follows both chronologically and logically Mary Oliver's American Primitive, which won her the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1983. The depth and diversity of perceptual awareness - so steadfast and radiant in American Primitive - continues in Dream Work. Additionally, she has turned her attention in these poems to the solitary and difficult labors of the spirit - to accepting the truth about one's personal world, and to valuing the triumphs while transcending the failures of human relationships.