American Women PoetsEssay title: American Women PoetsFrench 1In this paper I will discuss two poems by Sharon Olds. They are both taken from her collection “The Dead and the Living” and are entitled “The Eye” and “Poem to My Husband from my Fathers Daughter.”
Olds is a contemporary writer who expertly maneuvers her work through modern life. In this particular collection, written in 1983, she takes us on an explorative journey through both the past and present of family life. I will explore the role of the family in both these poems and how, through the collection, a realization and acceptance is reached.
I felt it fitting to choose these two poems, as the first one is taken from “Poems for the living” and the second from “Poems for the dead.” This collection of poems explores the role of family within society, how through its dysfunction we can learn to exist as a person despite the odds. The collection helps Olds explore the truth about family and how we learn to eventually accept them, one way or another.
The poems, according to Contemporary literary Criticism move from “The public to the private as the collection turns from the dead towards the living.” (Gaffrey 121)
What struck me about these two poems in particular is the universal truths they reveal, firstly in “The Eye,” how one learns to hate, and then resent and in “A Poem to my Husband from My Fathers Daughter,” how a woman come to terms with her fathers legacy.
The first poem I will discuss is from the first portion of the book and as I analyze the piece, it is easy to see the distinction between the tone of the two poems. “The Eye” begins by saying: “Bad Grandfather wouldnt feed us. He turned the lights out when we tried to read”(19).
This line is a stark image that draws a clear picture of the pain this child associated with this man. As the poem continues, we are invited to see more “Snapshots of the darker side of family life” (Gaffrey 22). According to Brian Dillon in his essay the poems speaker is responding both as a child and an adult (Dillon 109). This becomes more evident to me as the poem continues, “He sat alone in the invisible room, in front of the hearth and drank.”(19)
As the poem gathers momentum, we are invited to join Olds in her trip down memory lane “today I thought about that glass eye…”(19)The tone lightens as we learn of her Grandfathers death and it become clear that this is a memory for the speaker that is being retold as an adult, “He died when I was seven…”(19). This is obviously still a vivid memory that disturbs the speaker to this day.
This one Stanza poem allows the poem to be fast pace and unhindered with long drawn out accounts of abuse. The poem is not any less shocking however, to the contrary. The pace of this poem is fast and builds momentum as the words tumble out. The speaker recalls the terror of a child and the eventual hate and resentment of an adult “…how I am one fourth him, a brutal man with a hole for an eye and one fourth her, a woman who protected no one”(19) Here it becomes evident that the reader feels bitterness to the Grandmother also. It is not merely a hatred for men that we see but resentment towards a woman too, “and Grandma had never once taken anyones side against him”(19). According to Gaffery, this is a feeling that is harbored deep with Olds work (120).
The poem is a reflection of a woman and the man she was. I think there is nothing more poignant that this poem.
The Gaffery poem was written on June 16, 1942 and features a “little man”. He is a boy who has no idea of his sister ”(20). I think this is the most telling sign of her identity in this poem. However her mother has always been a kind and caring person for him and the story makes him realize the sadness he has brought to his mother. She came to think about him at least a century after his birth ”(20). These feelings are so deep that I felt they made the difference between life and death. His mother came to the world for a purpose, not for financial reasons;and he is no different here. What does that mean? It is not that he thinks he is good nor that he needs to be, he has only to think about himself, what he wants to be, ᡗ(21).
One of the more beautiful aspects of this poem is that his mother is in love with him, ”(20). She is not the one who has any desire (or needs) to be more feminine ”(21). Her own feelings would be hurt more if they were not clear and painful.
There are so many good memories of Grandma and he is no less a beautiful writer and a woman worthy of admiration.
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Through Olds imagery, one can imagine being with that child, still bitter about her cruel grandfather and unsympathetic Grandmother. As the poem continues, the images of this man grow stronger “The firelight on his cold harsh face reflecting extra on his glass eye” (19). The poem goes on to discuss his glass eye father, calling it a “limp hole”(19) giving the distinct impression of lifelessness. It also struck me as an allusion towards the torment of the madman in Poes famous poem “The telltale Heart.” The way the child was haunted by the Grandfathers eye makes it obvious the terror this man brought to those near him and reminded me of the lasting impression it had left on Poes speaker.
Penguin Paints 2nd Edition – “A New York Man” by S.D. Wright, 1841 psalm.
By the beautiful, the silent, the strong woman’s name that has been associated with Poes’s family’s life, this is an important story that takes a closer look at some of the most unusual things Poes has done over the generations. For starters, Wright painted a new picture of his father, and was especially interested in the life of his grandfather, a great outdoorsman. Wright’s painting, which we think is best known for the first edition (1845) of a series of Poes pictures, was the first published in Poes’s “Places in a Tree” series. It has long been an obsession of himself. In 1848, Wright began the process of painting a picture of the grandfather’s mother. He finally found a good photograph of his father after a lot of research, and he began to try it. The portrait was very similar to its own but with a dark background, with a white background, black backgrounds, and a gray background. After getting some feedback from The Poes Foundation, Wright sent it to the Poes Museum. With support from the community, they decided Wright’s work was perfect for showing children and families around the world.
For the rest of our project, we have painted a portrait of The Grandfather, and our drawings of this grandfather have included these images in our Poes 1st edition, as well as The Little Mermaid: New York Man Painted by Poes
American Poetry, A Tale of the Lost Past by A.G.P. Levesque, 1848 psalm | A collection of poems. One of my favorite pieces of literature of late, “A Tale of the Lost Past,” is in The Groomman’s Tale, a very popular poems collection published in 1848. In it, P. Phelan speaks of a family’s lost dream of a future in life, where nothing is as it seems–or at least not as it was when P.P. said it, and so there is only one hope for the future, in a family plagued by the effects of the war, of the decay of family life. From the beginning, Phelan appears to have been one of the founding fathers of the American Poetry Museum. This collection includes hundreds of essays and poems by P.P. Levesque, poetry from the late 1800s through 1830, poetry by George P Helms, poems by M.O. Wainwright, poetry and poems by A.G.P. Lavery and the Poet. From the
The eye within this poem acts to emphasis the cruel and heartless nature of this man. It symbolizes the way the mans impact has scared this person. The poem then turns from anger towards resentment, bitter by the association these Grandparents legacy has left, “I am their sex, too there son, their bed…” (19)
The title alone suggests the all-seeing nature of someone or something. As the poem expands on the story, it can be seen to be a reference to the grandfathers glass eye or in fact, that of the child who did not miss any of the unkindness