Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of the critical reception of Oliver's work is that she has been both commended and denounced for the same things—her simple, clear language and her predominant use of nature as a subject. Some critics find her treatment of the natural world not necessarily provocative, but intellectually stimulating all the same. Writing for the Kentucky Review, Robin Riley Fast says that

A strong sense of place, and of identity in relation to
it, is central to [Oliver's] poetry. Her poems are
firmly located in the places where she has lived or
traveled . . . ; her moments of transcendence arise organically
from the realities of swamp, pond, woods
and shore.

Other critics appreciate Oliver's emphasis on nature, too, but also recognize that there are those who do not. In Papers on Language and Literature, Vicki Graham writes that

Oliver's celebration of dissolution...