Balladz
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • Songs from our era of communal grief and reckoning—by the Pulitzer Prize and T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry winner, called "a poet for these times, a powerful woman who won’t back down" (San Francisco Chronicle).
"At the time of have-not, I look at myself in this mirror," writes Olds in this self-scouring, exhilarating volume, which opens with a section of quarantine poems, and at its center boasts what she calls Amherst Balladz (whose syntax honors Emily Dickinson: "she was our Girl - our Woman - / Man enough - for me") and many more in her own contemporary, long-flowing-sentence rhythm. Olds sings of her childhood, young womanhood, and maturity all mixed up together, seeing an early lover in the one who is about to buried; seeing her whiteness, seeing her privilege; seeing her mother (whom her readers will recognize) "flushed exalted at Punishment time"; seeing how we've spoiled the earth but carrying a stray indoor spider carefully back out to the garden.
It is Olds's gift to us that in the richly detailed exposure of her sorrows she can still elegize songbirds, her true kin, and write that heaven comes here in life, not after it.
"At the time of have-not, I look at myself in this mirror," writes Olds in this self-scouring, exhilarating volume, which opens with a section of quarantine poems, and at its center boasts what she calls Amherst Balladz (whose syntax honors Emily Dickinson: "she was our Girl - our Woman - / Man enough - for me") and many more in her own contemporary, long-flowing-sentence rhythm. Olds sings of her childhood, young womanhood, and maturity all mixed up together, seeing an early lover in the one who is about to buried; seeing her whiteness, seeing her privilege; seeing her mother (whom her readers will recognize) "flushed exalted at Punishment time"; seeing how we've spoiled the earth but carrying a stray indoor spider carefully back out to the garden.
It is Olds's gift to us that in the richly detailed exposure of her sorrows she can still elegize songbirds, her true kin, and write that heaven comes here in life, not after it.
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Community Reviews
I didnât love this book, but I didnât hate it. Based on other reviews, Iâve read on here, perhaps this was not the right choice for being the first Sharon Olds book Iâve read. I am new to her work, and to respect her knack for the craft of poetry but a lot of this book wasnât for me.
I do want to mention that I did like the themes of growing older, being in an older body, and thinking about/appreciating sex in an older body. I also appreciated the fact that at 78, the poet is clearly still working through some trauma that was at the hands of her parents. The brutal honesty of this poetry was a selling point for me. Yet, I was bored by a lot of this book. Personally, itâs just too soon for me to be reading any kind of literature about the pandemic and quarantine era. Not enough time has passed yet. So obviously, those parts of the book were my least favorite.
Contrary to what other reviewers are saying, I actually found the book to pick up closer to the end, specifically page 105 in the section titled âalbum from a previous existence.â This is my favorite part of the book. My least favorite part was âAmherst Balladzâ which I appreciated for its attempt at paying homage to Emily Dickinson with all the dashes⦠But darn it made those poems choppy to read and harsh on the eyes!
I will definitely be checking out some of Oldâs other books as I have liked other work of hers Iâve read sporadically. It might just come down to that sometimes we like individual poems and not necessarily all the poems grouped together in a particular book.
I do want to mention that I did like the themes of growing older, being in an older body, and thinking about/appreciating sex in an older body. I also appreciated the fact that at 78, the poet is clearly still working through some trauma that was at the hands of her parents. The brutal honesty of this poetry was a selling point for me. Yet, I was bored by a lot of this book. Personally, itâs just too soon for me to be reading any kind of literature about the pandemic and quarantine era. Not enough time has passed yet. So obviously, those parts of the book were my least favorite.
Contrary to what other reviewers are saying, I actually found the book to pick up closer to the end, specifically page 105 in the section titled âalbum from a previous existence.â This is my favorite part of the book. My least favorite part was âAmherst Balladzâ which I appreciated for its attempt at paying homage to Emily Dickinson with all the dashes⦠But darn it made those poems choppy to read and harsh on the eyes!
I will definitely be checking out some of Oldâs other books as I have liked other work of hers Iâve read sporadically. It might just come down to that sometimes we like individual poems and not necessarily all the poems grouped together in a particular book.
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