03


 * Sharon Olds**

( November 19, 1942- Present)



1. Sharon

 2. Mother, poet, teacher,  3. Loving, bold, smart, original  4. Writing in free verse, her kids, her husband  5. Her kids & marriage are the reason for living, you must have love if u want a successful marriage, The older she gets, the more beautiful she feels.  6. Losing her kids, not being loved, not able to write freely  7. To continue writing poems, to have more time writing, sometimes to write differently.  8. Birth to her children, wiling to give up everything to become a poet, gave up a chance to have dinner at the Whit House, when she was invited by Laura Bush,  9. “This creature of the poem may assemble itself into a being with its own centrifugal force.” “ I was very afraid that I wouldn't be able to do this job well. And the time never came back.” “Well, one thing I'm really interested in, when I'm writing, is being accurate.” ( Sharon Olds Quotes), ( Sharon Olds)  10. Olds

(What can Poetry do?)

 Poetry is a very powerful tool to get an idea, feeling or belief across the reader or audience. Poetry can change how someone feels on a certain subject or to bring back good memories. Poetry can do many things for people such as getting out an emotion which is what confessional poets are known for. Sharon Olds’ poems aren’t what I enjoy reading the most in poetry but they showed me a new side which was different and had some surprises. She talks about so touchy subjects, almost with ease, I believe this is why she is why she became so famous and have won so many awards.  I remember one of the first poems I read was called ‘ The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost. I read it in my old Literature class, and we talked about how we could make this poem relative in our lives. The poem is about picking the right path in life. I was going into high school, so this seemed to come at the right time. My teacher said we have to make a decision with your best judgement and know not just to follow what everyone might be doing. I know people that chose the wrong path because it was the most popular, but this poem made me realize taken the path you truly know is best for you, it can mean all the difference in your life.

(Bio Paragraph)

 Sharon Olds is a confessional free verse style poet that is known for intense language and startling images to convey truths about domestic and political violence, sexuality, family relationships and the body. Sharon Olds was born in San Francisco, California, on November 19, 1942. She grew up in a troubled household considering her parents and her other relatives abused her as a child. One of her major reasons for writing poetry is the anger she had towards her parents. This also has a connection toward her subject matter in many of her poems. She received her B.A. from Stanford University in 1964 and then in 1974 she got her Ph.D. in American literature from Columbia University. “ As a graduate student Olds had struggled to emulate the poets she studied. The vow she made--to write her own poetry, no matter how bad it might be--freed her to develop her own voice.” (About Sharon Olds)  She is the author of seven volumes of poetry. She published her first collection of poems in 1980, //Satan Says,// when she was thirty-seven years old. The people applauded her for her style, and gave the book positive reviews, this was the starting point of her career. She has become very successful and she is the winner of several prestigious awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent award is for //One secret Thing// for the TS Eliot Prize. She now has a family, wonderful marriage and lives in New York. She also spends her adulthood teaching, lecturing, at different universities and she still continues to write. She is one of the greatest confessional poets that is still alive, I hope she get many more awards for the bold free verse poems she loves to write and is known for. ( //Poetry Foundation)//

 Sharon Olds is inspired by the great confessional poets before, and another reason for inspiration is her difficult childhood. Her idols in confessional poetry are Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath. She went to school to study American Literature and she knew that was what she wanted to do and she would give up anything to become like them. She studied their works and became hard on herself she wanted to be like them. Once she got positive reviews on her first book of poems she became more confident. Another major reason Old’s writes her poems is to get out the anger she had for her parents. She grew up being unhappy in her household. She uses her hardships to create free verse poems that have a deep meaning to her. She is also known for writing on subject most poets wouldn’t. She writes about her sex life very explicitly, her being abused by her family, and her own children. Her father is one of the biggest subjects she talks about in her poems.( Kornbluth, Jesse)  She has even written a whole book of poems called //The Father//. She had many issues with him but, I think it made her stronger and the person she is today. She can’t complain about her success because she has won many awards such as the National Book Critics Circle Award, Lamont Poetry Prize, T.S. Eliot Prize and nominated for countless other awards as well. ( SharonOlds Biography)



" In New york City the "Academy Of American Poets" (Sharon Olds, far left) http://www.sampsoniaway.org/blog/2010/11/05/poets-forum-gathers-a-chorus-of-american-verse/ "Sharon and Edward Hirsch discuss the meaning of words"

(Literary Criticism Paragraph:)

Olds has a handful of subject matter she writes about for example her sister, marriage and her sex life. Old’s is most famously known for her subject matter having to do with her difficult childhood. Discussing Olds in Poetry, Lisel Muller noted: “By far the greater number of her poems are believable and touching, and their intensity does not interfere with craftsmanship. Listening to Olds, we hear a proud, urgent, human voice.” (//Poetry Foundation)// I agree with Amy when she says this about the poem //The Victims// //“// The speaker seems to have parents, who are well educated, which shows that she comes from a well off social background. However, a bum' is the opposite. A vagrant comes from an extremely low background. This may show some emotion of superiority on the part of the child.” ( Literary Analysis)

When I first read //The Victims,// I knew that what she had done through with her family was serious. She has strong hateful feelings going through the poem. It explains that her mother divorced her father and everyone was happier when he was done and was joyful when bad things later happen to him. “ Then you were fired, and we grinned inside,” no one felt sorry for him because he had caused pain in the family for many years. “ We were tickled to think of your office taken away, your secretaries taken away,” she wanted her father to surfer because she could never get her childhood back. He didn’t have true love for her or her mom. I believe that is why she takes marriage to seriously. She knows what is it is like to not have someone be there for her.

In //The Victims// she goes to present tense in the poems and says “ Now I pass the bums in doorways, the white slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their suits of compressed silt, the stained flippers of their hands, the underwater fire of their eyes.” This makes me think that she can’t see a slob of a man without thinking of her drunk father. She wondered about the men she saw and thought about what they had to do to get left with nothing, just like her dad. //The Victims// is an appropriate name for this poem because, the father was one causing the pain upon the family and she and her family were all the victims. Olds has made this difficulty in her life something to write about and has made is classic confessional poetry.

**The Victims**

took it in silence, all those years and then kicked you out, suddenly, and her kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we grinned inside, the way people grinned when Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South Lawn for the last time. We were tickled to think of your office taken away, your secretaries taken away, your lunches with three double bourbons, your pencils, your reams of paper. Would they take your suits back, too, those dark carcasses hung in your closet, and the black noses of your shoes with their large pores? She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it until we pricked with her for your annihilation, Father. Now I pass the bums in doorways, the white slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their suits of compressed silt, the stained flippers of their hands, the underwater fire of their eyes, ships gone down with the lanterns lit, and I wonder who took it and took it from them in silence until they had given it all away and had nothing left but this. ||
 * When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and

This is an other webiste with Sharon Olds reading " I Go Back to May 1937" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/olds.html media type="youtube" key="mmMzmSn5nyg?rel=0" height="390" width="640" ** Sharon Old's reads from <span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial,sans-serif; line-height: 25px;">Essential Pleasures **

**Works Cited**

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">"About Sharon Olds." //Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois//. Web. 08 May 2011. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/olds/about.htm>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">Kornbluth, Jesse. "Sharon Olds | Head Butler." //Head Butler |//. Web. 08 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.headbutler.com/books/poetry/sharon-olds>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">"Literary Analysis: Assessing Imagery in Sharon Olds Poetry - by Amy Gallagher - Helium." //Helium - Where Knowledge Rules//. Web. 08 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.helium.com/items/1130873-sharon-olds-poetry>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">//Poetry Foundation//. Web. 03 May 2011. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/sharon-olds>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">"Sharon Olds - We're All Taking on Too Much, We're All Asking Too Much O... | Famous Quotes." //Love Quotes | Quotes about Love | Love Poems | Sad Love Quotes | Top 10 - Top 100 Love Quotes//. Web. 08 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.1-love-quotes.com/quote/926275>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;"> "Sharon Olds (American Poet) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia." //Encyclopedia - Britannica Online Encyclopedia//. Web. 07 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/427419/Sharon-Olds>.

<span style="font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;"> "Sharon Olds Biography — Infoplease.com." //Infoplease: Encyclopedia, Almanac, Atlas, Biographies, Dictionary, Thesaurus. Free Online Reference, Research & Homework Help. — Infoplease.com//. Web. 03 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 32px;"> <http://www.infoplease.com/biography/sharon-olds.html>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;">"Sharon Olds Quotes - Page 2 - BrainyQuote." // Famous Quotes at BrainyQuote //. Web. 08 May 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 32px; margin: 0px;"> <http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/sharon_olds_2.html>.