Winter

Winter

This section of the book talks about her separation with her husband.

The poem that I chose to analyze is “Not Going to Him” this talks about how she cannot see him or be with her husband because he is away. At night, she thinks about a moment when he is with her and her father when he is dying and when he is in coma.  Olds describes her husband in great detail. Starting with his wrist, then his skin, saying how it was very old and “was made as if before the Christian God existed” his heels, feet, calf, pelvis, waist, chest, the scar on his neck, throat. She then gets excited when he breathes and moves. Finally, she says that “my body may never learn not to yearn for that one, or this could be a first farewell to him, a life-do-us-part.”

I am not quite sure why she described her husband in such a way that she did. Maybe this was when she thought something was going wrong? Or that she thought that he thought of her as more of a friend than a lover? I think this because she says that “my body may never learn not to yearn for that one, or this could be a first farewell to him, a life-do-us-part.” Please comment and tell me what you think!