Sharon Olds & Louise Glück
These two writers use very different styles, however, the selections of poems in the anthology share some overarching themes:
love, religion, family
Choose one theme that you see in a poem or two from Gluck and in a poem or two from Olds and explain how each writer approaches the theme differently. What can you learn from these different approaches as a writer?
Write a 7-10 sentence paragraph.
I chose love.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in Louise Gluck’s poem, “Parable of Flight,” she compares love to birds. She states that love is transient and fades. She says that following in her last two stanzas’, and I thought I would quote it as I really enjoyed the description.
“They leave here, that’s the point,
First their bodies, then their sad cries.
And from that moment, cease to exist for us.
You must learn to think of our passion that way.
Each kiss was real, then
Each kiss left the face of the earth.”
It has a bittersweet quality that I liked. Out of all her poems though, “Mirror” was probably my favorite. I really liked the entire poem and I sympathized with it
For Sharon Old, I chose her poem “The Elder Sister.”
It housed a very interesting description that I had never even considered. I enjoyed her language and the way that she spoke of her sister.
Cal Garbe said:
ReplyDeleteReligion - I choose you.
Sharon Olds, "The Pope's Penis." and Louise Gluck, "Celestial Music."
When you think religion a poem about the pope and his penis usually is the last thing to come to mind. But this poem approaches religion in a way different frame of mind. We all have sexual organs and why should the pope be any different. Thats something that can be learned from approaching the theme of religion in that bringing it down to a ground level and normalizing it makes it easier to talk about.
With Gluck a different type of poem about religion is written. It approaches it from an outsiders point of view and discusses the catharsis religion can have. Overall I learn that writing about religion can be approached from new angles.
The theme i chose was Love
ReplyDeleteIn Louise Gluck poem Midnight she approaches love in a very non romantic way. She speaks of the sadness it brings and how fickle love truly can be.
Also in Louise Gluck poem Parable of Flight she approaches love in a more romantic way. Yet she still stays with the idea that true love is fickle but that doesn't mean its any less beautiful. My favorite lines from the poem are
You must learn to think of our passion that way
Each kiss was real, then
each kiss left the face of the earth.
Gluck- Mock Orange
ReplyDeleteOlds- Monarchs
Both of these poems discuss sex. They both have similar titles which i thought was interesting, but they have differing viewpoints.
Monarchs is about a girl losing her virginity I beleive. It says no one had ever touched me before, and the hinged print of my blood on your thigh. This experience is related to the beauty of monarchs migrating south.
Mock Orange talks about sex even though that is not the main theme. Gluck says she hates sex, The man's paralyzing body, and the cry that always escapes, the low humiliating premise of union.
I'm kind of a sucker for love, so that's the theme I chose, though it kind of intermingles with family. Gluck seems to talk mostly of husband/wife love, whiles Olds uses her sister and father as subjects in poems about familial love.
ReplyDeleteSomething Olds tends to do is write in a way that flows - there is no stanza break and it seems to be her sitting next to you telling the story. In particular, I'm referring to "The Elder Sister" and "The Lifting". She realizes that there is a great tie between family members, a deep love.
Gluck, on the other hand, typically uses stanzas to separate her thoughts. The way it's written is also sort of choppy; it's more abstract, in my opinion. Gluck doesn't praise her love, though. She talks rather gloomily about her husband in the poems "Midnight" and "The Balcony".
Same topic, but Gluck's poems are sad and Olds' poems are hopeful. It shows me that I don't always have to be in praise of something for it to be poem-worthy.
Im torn bwetween love and religion, but for louise gluck's Vespers both themes come out. this poem caught my eyebecause i grew up attending vespers services with my mom, every saturday, so it sparked something of my past in me. vespers is a traditional night worship service in the orthodox church, and in this poem gluck defiantely makes it clear that this is to god. she constantly entions, that she did everything for him,AND she takes responsibility for her shortcomings, rather than placing the blame on him.
ReplyDeletefor sharon olds the popes penis, the title kind of shocked me to begin with but whilst reading it i see that there is vague religion inside this poemjust because the head of the catholic faith is mentioned, and described. and the fact that she went further to describehis penis is a comical, and deep subject.
Love, the most complicated and most simple emotion felt by the human animal, is expounded upon by both women in different and thought-inspiring ways. Glück’s approach to love is bitter and demanding as she reminisces in “Retreating Wind” all the careful attention and gifts she has given to her children, her seeds, her plants, and the disappointments they have become for her. Or maybe she is not disappointed in them but is disappointed in the love of life she has gave her children that condemns them to a one-phase life cycle unlike those of the plants in her garden, who live again and again to the love that is life. Glück also carries a bitter love for her husband, the man in “The Mirror”, who in her eyes is an immature show-off who acts tough for only her benefit. Olds’ love is sensual, lusty, and not without humor. She is not ashamed of her love for sex and the penis as shown in “Early Images of Heaven” and “A Woman in Heat Wiping Herself” in which the male organ, often thought of as being not sexually pleasing, is the sole object of her desire, a desire that is eternal and lays innate in the subconscious unknown to all. Love is tender, magical, angry, severe, not always the fairy tale we have all been taught from birth to believe. These women’s views have shown that in their work in very potent ways which the writer, myself, have stored to serve as examples of what can be done with the oxymoronic ideal of love.
ReplyDeleteClint Giwer
ReplyDeleteI choose religion
Sharon Olds Poem "Sex Without Love" ponders the theory of how people can make love without being in love. "How do they come to the
come to the come to the God come to the
still waters, and not love
the one who came there with them," Her writing has some good descriptive language and some thought provoking questions. It brushes a lighter side of religion.
I love Louise Gluck's poem "Celestial Music" It had me hooked from the very beginning because it resonated with me. I also have friends who are, "Not a stupid person, yet with all she knows, she literally talks to God.She thinks someone listens in heaven." I like her descriptive paragraph about the caterpillar too, it has a lot of deep connotations about life with a caterpillar being eaten by ants. A lot can be learned from her writing style. She is good at expressing the dichotomy of religious viewpoints.