FINAL POST (summer)

Summer

My LAST post will be on the short section of summer. Olds reflects on her marriage and small events leading up to the divorce. I enjoyed this section because not only was it short and easy to read, but she realized that she was a strong woman and she somewhat overcame her divorce. All of the poems in this section have something to do with the ocean which symbolizes power. She is finding power and strength in herself and knowing that the divorce was not her fault.

I very much enjoyed reading this book and going through a journey with Olds and her troubles with her marriage. Although these poems were easy to read and I enjoyed reading them, I will probably never read poem as a recreational activity. I feel like with poems, you have to dig deeper and find the symbols and literary devices to find out what the author really means. Instead of a sweater being just blue, both the sweater and the color blue have significance to them and you must find the meaning to actually understand what the author would like to convey.

I liked everyone in my group and if I had to do this project again, I do not think that I would do anything different, (except for the procrastination).

-Cami

Spring

Spring

In this section of the book, Olds talks about her divorce and how she is slowly moving past the sadness and moving on with her life. She also talks about her miscarriage and how it affected her. She thinks about what they would look like and if they would look like her husband or not. You can tell that this is a very sore subject but not as sore as other things that have happened in her life.

The poem that I would like to look at is “Not Quiet Enough” I think that although she is somewhat overcoming the divorce and moving on, she still feels like it was partially her fault and that she was not good enough for him. Hence the title of the poem.

Although I am not as interested in this poem as others in this section, I wanted to write about it because it shows that she is beginning to move on and realize that in order to be happy again, she needs to understand that it was his choice and not her fault.

-Cami

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!

January-December

January- December

The first set of poems in the book is about when Olds found out that her husband was having an affair and that he was leaving her. At first, I was really confused and I was not quite sure what was going on. When I finally figured out what was going on, I felt sorry for her and I wanted to comfort her. I think that the reason that I liked this book was because it had raw emotions and you knew how she felt the whole time. Olds took you through the journey of her crumbling marriage and how she got through it.

The poem that stuck out at me the most was the first poem “While He Told Me”. This is the first poem in the whole book and it is when her husband first tells her that he is having an affair. It says that she “looked from small thing to small thing in our room.” One of the things that she looked at was a postcard of a woman bending down to a lily. I looked online to see what it meant and it said that it represented female sexuality. I am not really sure what to get out of that but she also talks about how she looked at her husband’s breasts. I am not really sure why.

I picked this poem because not only did it set a mood for the whole book, but it had very raw emotions and very distinct symbols that I could look up and figure out what they meant.

-Cami Shoe

Stag's Leap intro

Hello, World.

So, for the first part of this post, I am supposed to introduce myself to the group. Hello Nicki, Taylor, and Joseph. I, as you already know, am Cami Shoe and I picked the book Stags Leap to read and blog about. I am also supposed to identify myself as a reader. So, without further ado, I would like to point out to all of you that I am, in fact, a reader.

I would like to say that I am writing this post after I read the entire book (Shame on me). When I first picked this book, I thought that it would be extremely boring and hard to read like Shakespeare. I partly picked this book because I knew that poems were not my favorite so if I had someone in my group, like Nicki, she would explain things to me about the poems and I would understand it more. I obviously was taken by surprise. This book was not only a joy to read but it was also very smooth and easy to read. I loved the style of the book and I liked the flow (sorry prof. kauf.). I will soon be writing other posts on some individual poems in different parts of the book and what I thought of them.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post!

-Cami Shoe