Sharon Olds And Linda Pastan - 2004 Words

Sharon Olds and Linda Pastan are renowned post-modernistic poets who aptly portray domestic life based on their perceived ideas of women in the home and personal family experiences. Sharon Olds refuses to give details about her personal life, but her poems appear to be autobiographical in nature (Encyclopedia of Women’s Autobiography credoreference.com). In this week’s poems Sharon Olds explores motherhood (herself and her mother), sexuality, and a not so fond memory of her father. Olds’ references to motherhood in the poems, this week would lead the reader to feel that she had a fair relationship with her mother, which translated to her having a meaningful relationship with her children. Linda Pastan is an accomplished poet who†¦show more content†¦The narrator then goes on to describe how she views the daughter as being the second great arrival within the household. Even though the daughter was the second â€Å"great arrival† in her househo ld (the husband was the first), the narrator goes into great depth of how she slept, nursed, and grew up all in a blur, thus leading the reader to believe that even though she was second, she was always first to the narrator. At the end of the poem, the narrator compares the coming and eventual going of her daughter with bees that she caught when she was young. The bee will fly freely until caught, while in captivity it will sing its song, but when released will continue to fly away (Olds poetry foundation.org). This verse is a reference to her daughter coming home and eventually leaving. The theme behind Old’s poem is that of the narrator’s intense love for her daughter, and probably relates to the old adage â€Å"if you love something set it free, and it will come back again.† Linda Pastan’s poem â€Å"I am Learning to Abandon the World† has a similar setting of being in the home, but the themes are different. The reader could interpret the overall theme of the poem is Pastan’s inability to sleep well. Why is the author not sleeping well? â€Å"[T]he world has taken my father, my friends† would lead the reader to believe that the author is coping with the death ofShow MoreRelatedPost Modernism And Its Influence On Society1699 Words   |  7 Pagesreally feeling a backlash from what everyone else thought. Two female writers who were able to freely express themselves in their writing during post-modernism were Linda Pastan and Sharon Olds. Linda Pastan talked more about her life in general like every day anxieties, her marriage, parenting, and even grief. However, Sharon Olds was a little more controversial in her writing since she often talked about sexuality and violence. Their writing styles were similar in the aspect that they both