Final Post—Joseph

Sharon Olds has provided a gateway for some others to express themselves.  In this work, Stag's Leap, she has given completely raw and true information.  Her marriage became a miscarried child for they did not treat it the way they should have.  Sharon realizes that it was not all her fault that her husband left her.  She knows that there is a bit of both of them in this marriage and it just so happens that he just wasn't completely in it.

I tink that it was interesting for her to title the work Stag's Leap because of their favorite wine.  It is a beautiful metaphor.  In Christian metaphors, the wine can represent blood which can signify the hurt she experienced through this marriage.  They shared the wine, so it connects them, but at the same time, wine can be—what's the word?  Exhausted.  It won't last forever.  Someone get's the last drink.  She never had the opportunity to realize that her glass was empty and there was no more in the bottle.

It was over, and there's no money to bring it back.

It's all over.  She became someone new, and someone out of love.

—Joseph

Joseph: Spring

Okay, so Spring is mostly consisting of other aspects of her marriage such as her children or things that originated out of the marriage.  She explains that there are times when she wants to quit and fail.  She wants to allow herself to fail.  I can see where she gets this.  When things, such as finals and stress, come upon me, it seems like it all comes at once.  Such as this week, finals week, there is so much that I decide is okay because it's finals week.  I say that it's okay to sleep a little more because it's finals week.  However, it does not necessarily help me all the time.  Sometimes it ends up hurting me more.

It's times like these when I decide that I would almost WANT to fail.  Why? Because then maybe it'll show me something new.  I've never really failed at anything before except sports, but that doesn't count.  It's not something I care deeply about.  If I were to fail a music class, I would die.  But it would show me something new, I would hope.  I'm a very firm believer in "Everything happens for a reason."  As Sharon continues on in these poems, I think that she begins to have that process as well.  Everything happens so that something else can come about.  Something was in the way so it needed to be eliminated.

Sharon is hurt, and she finds herself hoping that she's not the one doing the damage.  In her dreams, she might want to fight and hurt, but in reality she hopes that that's not something that's coming about from all of this.  She tries to be the bigger person.  I think a lot of that comes from her ability to be analytical.  It gives her the opportunity to step back and make a decision based on everything—she can make a decision for the masses of people that will benefit them over herself.

—Joseph

Joseph: Winter

Sharon Olds uses the seasons, sometimes months, to help her overall analogy of her life and its ruins that was left after her husband explained that he was in love with another woman.  This winter season that is her second collection of poems in this work is used as a frost that comes over her.  She explains in her poem "Love" that how could it be that they were not in love?  She analyzes everything about her marriage even to the very beginning.  And then I think that she does a fantastic job using absolutely random and relevant facts.

I say that she uses random and relevant facts because it's true.  I don't know, after thirty years, that anyone would be thinking in their right mind at this point.  However, there are things that stick out to us—there are different specific things that our subconscious decides that it's something we have to remember.  Sharon brings forth some of these factors in her writing.  I think this adds the the mind set that she has when she is going through this heartbreak.

Heartbreak—that's something we talked about as a group, as well. We don't necessarily think that they got married because they were in love.  Of course, we're sure that they enjoyed each other to some extent and were romantic with it (obviously) but when she explains that she told her mother, it is almost as if the mother had been encouraging the marriage from the beginning. The woman was more heartbroken, it seemed as Sharon explained, than Sharon herself.  This was a big event that we talked about in our group meeting for this work.

It would make sense that she loved him logically.  I think that's why the poem "Love" is so prominent in this part.  It provides the over-analyzation of Sharon and her mind.  She might have married him and fallen in love with him because it was logical.  It was the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, I find a lot of myself in this articular section.  I analyze things such as this, and I will admit that I have gotten into relationships because it was the logical thing to do.  Because I liked them, but it was never really everything I really wanted.  I always wanted someone else more.

However, Sharon does try to keep him.  She loves him.  Perhaps, after the fact, she fell in love with him.  Perhaps she fell in love with him because he was no longer hers.  Because he was now leaving and she had to keep him somehow.  Regardless, the snow melted away to reveal something else quite beautiful, she says.

—Joseph

Joseph: January—December

This collection of poetry is amazing.  There is something about Sharon Olds' raw emotion.  She begins the work off with this section of poems (there are six sections hence the bog title)titled "January—December" and she tells the audience about her experience with her husband leaving her.  In our group meetings, we decided that she was a bit in shock and disbelief.  After thirty years of marriage, I would be, too.  At least, that's what I would think.  I'm not even thirty yet, and the only thing that has been there all of my years is my family, and if they left, I don't even know what would happen.  I wouldn't know what to do.  I think that Sharon was this way with her soon-to-be ex-husband. 

He cheated on her and she felt as if she should try to fix it.  There were nights, she explains, where they had sexual relations even after her husband told her that he was cheating on her and in love with someone else.  Our group took to this as that she was reaching out in every way she knew to bring him back.  Sharon is very analytical of her own life and she feels as if it was her that made him go elsewhere for something new and exciting.

Sharon feels in this part that if she had given him the sexual relationship that he wanted, he would not have had to go out and find another one.  It just so happens that her husband fell in love with this new woman and he is now leaving.

An interesting fact that we noted was that after he told her, she still insisted on going with him to his work Christmas party.  She explains to him that she is still his wife, and she will accompany him to this party.  Regardless, she knows of the new woman, and she just so happens to be at the work party.  We get that Sharon does not wish to do anything other than keep what she knows, in this point.

-Joseph

Taylor - Me as a reader

As a reader I am forgiving and extremely open. I pride myself in this because it sets me apart as an almost non-denomination reader who crosses the borders of genres and allows me to be very captivated by near any author who ignites a passion of their subject in their reader. This is also where I stand in Stag’s Leap because she is so captivating in her angst and desire for reasoning of her divorce. She pleads, cries, desires, forgets, and reminisces all while still pulling the reader in and allowing them to experience her emotions along with her.

This book has proven itself as substantial in explaining a women’s struggle in divorce and meshes well with how I approached this book as a reader. You have to be okay with the fact that poetry is a means of expression of forbidden thoughts through metaphor and delicate use of diction.

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