Jason Chen ENG101 Thomas Reber 3/4/2015 Interpretation of a Poem Usually, it is very frustrating when you read something and you cannot grasp what exactly the author is trying to put across. Some authors, like Sharon Olds, use examples of real life experiences to try and explain something that is also happening in real life. After reading the preceding ten lines of the poem, I thought to myself that I had understood clearly what Sharon was saying. However, after getting to the tenth line, I got very confused. This prompted me to sit down, read the poem again keenly while putting down some important notes to fully understand Sharon’s message in this poem, Sex without Love. Interpretation of the Poem “Sex without Love” Sex without Love is a very …show more content…
This phrase is trying to show the disgust that Sharon feels about people who engage in loveless sex. Sharon does not understand how people are able to share this define gift without being connected spiritually and emotionally with a connection that would also connect to God. This is common thing in today’s world; people having sex before marriage, one night stands and friend with benefits. People who just want to enjoy the sexual pleasures; to just get physical without any commitments or emotional closeness. The media has contributed in a great way to sending this kind of messages to the youth and it is not the right thing to do. Sex is divine and it was ordained by God to be enjoyed in marriage when God makes a woman and a man one. Sex was also ordained by god for procreation by people who love each other and are married. This fact is well represented in the simile, “wet as the children at birth whose mothers are going to give them away.” Those who engage in loveless sex cry during and after it, tears of pain (Baker …show more content…
This particular part of the poem is very confusing. In today’s worlds, people who engage in sex without love cannot for whatever reason be compared to religious people. These kinds of people are known to be “sinners”. They engage in loveless sex for money, as a way of compensating a favor or trying to get something in return. On the other hand, religious people are divine and presumed to be godly. However, after reading the phrase several times, I think Sharon is trying to say that people who engage in love without sex and the religious people have the same characteristics (Hollis
Elizabeth Tallent explores the innocence and ignorance of young love in her short story, “No One’s a Mystery”. The story opens with the narrator receiving a diary gift for her eighteenth Birthday from her lover Jack. Jack is married and spends his days having an affair with the eighteen-year-old narrator. The story shows their different perspectives on their relationship, where Jack sees it as temporary and the narrator sees a long future in the relationship. Tallent focuses on their conflicting views on the relationship to show that the narrator is blinded by love and cannot foresee the possible end to their relationship. The short story suggests that even when in a toxic relationship love can blur reality. Tallent achieves this thread through the use of symbolism and foreshadowing.
“no fun” by R.H. Sin is a deep poem, targeting many societal problems while simultaneously targeting teens today. He does so by subtly putting in many popular things that teens feel and witness, such as drugs. R.H Sin uses his poetry as a way to share the things he would like to tell his sister and mother, because of the struggles he sees them face every day. These are his main inspiration and reasons as to why he writes about the things he does. Furthermore, he sometimes writes about trending topics that he feels he would like to address. Despite him being only 28 years old, he already wrote a very popular book of poems, “Whiskey, Words and a Shovel”, which Oprah put on her book club list. He writes exactly 7, 222 words a day although most of his poems are only about 3 lines long, “no fun” being one of the exceptions. Throughout the poem he uses allusion, repetition and connotation along with a lack of a rhyme scheme, pattern in syllables, punctuation and capitalization to help emphasize different parts of a poem. R.H Sin, in his poem “no fun” challenges his readers by defying society’s expectations for teens and their fear of not being accepted, as to show how much society has shaped our every thought and action.
Name Institution Course Date The rhetoric of Sharon Olds’ Sex without Love Sharon Olds in her poem Sex without Love illustrates an attitude of dislike for the act of sex without love. She uses similes, metaphors, imagery, free verse and irony to describe her dislike for sex without love. The author chronicles erotic relationships and her curiosity on how such relationships occur.
Maily T. Ly TLIT 101 - Professor Liner Wednesday, January 31, 2018 Response Paper #1 (Poetry) "Sex without Love" What is sex without love means? Why do they feel the need to do this? Are you a friend?
We live in a society that has increasingly stomped on love, depicting it as cruel, superficial and full of complications. Nowadays it is easy for people to claim that they are in love, even when their actions say otherwise, and it is just as easy to claim that they are not when they really are. Real love is difficult to find and keeping it alive is even harder, especially when one must overcome their own anxieties and uncertainties. This is the main theme present in Russell Banks’ short story “Sarah Cole: A Type of Love Story,” as well as in “The Fireman’s Wife,” written by Richard Bausch. These narratives, although similar in some aspects, are completely different types of love stories.
This teaching discusses the beauty of the human body and sexuality, and it is though our bodies that we reveal God’s love. However, love has become confused with the idea sex in todays society. It is this confusion that is leading people to think it is necessary to have sex with whom ever they are in a relationship with in order to prove their love to each other through their bodies. However, this idea is misguided and had led to many people live in lust in hopes of feeling loved by their sexual partners. But, the true feeling of love cannot be found in a simple carnal act. As they state in the video, love is the desire to bring one’s partner closer to God. This requires the couple to refrain from sex outside of marriage, because sex implies a complete giving of oneself to their partner which cannot be done without the holy union of marriage first. It is after this holy contract that two people can truly be joined in the act of marital embrace and truly show God’s plan for human sexuality, to become closer to one’s partner and create new
One of the poem’s main premises as to why having sex is superior to making love is that the participants are not giving in to a “false Messiah” (15). People who claim to be in love or fawn over their sexual partners are missing the true point of the intimate act. The notion of a false Messiah, which is love and affection, argues that love is not a true savior for people, and it is more of an imposter of happiness. The poem states that when people extract love from the act of sex, each person does not mistakenly love the mediator of satisfaction, but instead focus on praising the true “God”. If one spends so much time admiring a person, he or she will ultimately be disappointed or lose time with the real goal of sex. In the words of the poem, to be attached to the person one is having sex with would mean to “mistake the lover for their own pleasure” (17). He or she would then fail in their endeavors to reach true satisfaction.
Love and Sex. These two notions are the philosophical motivation of every human being. The poem “Sex Without Love” by Sharon Olds, is a great example of today’s society and views. In this poem, it is indisputable that the compelling relationship between love and sex can be perceived in completely different way, when considering sex without love and also depending on who the reader is. Love and sex are topics of discussion that come together in a somewhat controversial sense in society, and especially the religious society. Olds just cannot understand why people have sex without love.
The vivid projection of emotional plight as a metaphorical means to convey the lonely odyssey of life is reflected in Frank O’Hara’s “How to Get There” and Sylvia Plath’s “Elm” as both poets weave personal experiences into provocative language. O’Hara’s immediate experience in “How to Get There” revolves around that familiar moment of acknowledgement of loneliness as a precursor to independence. Through O’Hara’s use of enjambment, one can extrapolate the speaker’s uncertainty of living in a world where struggling and agonizing individually initiates the feelings of fear. This innate feeling of fear enshrouds the speaker in unfamiliarity, yet this exposure to reality contributes to independence and experience. For example, mutualism found within relationships can deter individuals from seeking experience beyond their comfort level (this can affect how they manage struggles stemming from unfamiliarity). Once exposed to unfamiliarity, the understanding of what is known or what should be known becomes a struggle in itself. For Sylvia Plath in “Elm”, the fear of delving into the unknown and being exposed to fierce pain, is palpably frightening yet essential to the human condition. Plath’s use of natural imagery illustrating the inevitable pain experienced in love strikes a chord in the audience, giving us a nostalgic feeling of loneliness and betrayal. The projection of emotional turbulence deeply resonates within those who have felt love and lost it. In essence, O’Hara and Plath
Imagery was not the work of just one author many wrote with this same style, but not many managed to master it like Sharon Olds. She one of those writers who’s mastering of hiding messages in her work was her whole life. But Sharon Olds dealt with her situations in a more literal way. In her poem “Sex without Love” we see how the author uses wordplay to make the meaning of the word “Love” a physical thing. She states in her poem, “ They do not mistake the lover for their own pleasure/ they are like great runners: they know they are alone/ with the road surface, the cold, the wind,/ the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-vascular health/ Just factors”(lines 16-20). Sharon Olds does this in order to distinguish how there is no love in
The poem “Sex Without Love” written by Sharon Olds is a poem about how people who do not love each other still manage to have sex. She begins with the question many people ask, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?”, which immediately gets readers intrigued and to contemplate the question at hand. The author’s use of imagery allows the reader to feel like he/she is actually experiencing the contemplation that Olds is experiencing. Many people argue that sex without love is not morally correct and that it can often give off a negative reputation for many people. However, some people believe the opposite and think that no prior connection is required to have sex. Sex is a very interesting topic because it stirs up many different conversations and opinions. According to Sharon Olds poem, people should have meaningful sex and connections with other humans rather than empty, careless relationships. Most people today prefer having the easy, casual relationship that does not require the extra work entailed in a loving relationship. Olds is able to use imagery, religion and metaphors to express her dislike towards loveless sex.
No doubt he has spent much of his time on studies rather than girls. When they embrace, he feels he can never let go; until he smells "the horrid stagnant smell of that water" from the pond. Both seem to stop and draw away from each other. Mabel had a wild, doubtful look about her; Joe could not interpret it. One reason he may have convinced himself that he loved her is because he did not like that look and wanted to stop it. "You love me?" she asks. He replies,"Yes." When Joe leaves to go back to the surgery, he kisses her "with his heart's painful kiss." But she breaks down sobbing about how she is so awful. Joe tries to convince her that he loves her and wants to marry her. She is not convinced. "I feel awful. I feel I'm horrible to you." "No, I want you, I want you." he says with a strange intonation. This makes her even more scared. She realizes then that she really does not love him. I believe this story is about two people with low self-esteem. They both need love and convince themselves to love the other. I do not believe this to be real love, because it did not last, and one cannot convince themselves to fall in love with another. I felt disenchanted after reading this story. It was a bit sad, seeing two people who need love but cannot find it even from each other. I wanted to find out who it was that had misled
Many factors can contribute to the downfall of a relationship. In “Home Burial”, a modernist poem by Robert Frost, the death of s child causes said downfall. In “Your Love is Killing Me” by Sharon Van Etten, the cause of the decline in the relationship is unknown. Though similar in the way they depict the downfall of relationships, “Home Burial” and “Your Love is Killing Me” differ in their attitudes towards said relationships.
Sexual abuse causes long lasting effects that follow a person into adulthood. This results in issues in forming strong and healthy relationships as adults. Furthermore, when involved a child and a parental figure, these issues become even more prominent, as they affect relationships both at home and in personal life. Through her poetry collection, Rupi Kaur expresses her own experience with the sexual abuse she experienced. The first section of Milk and Honey displays how sexual abuse affects the way Kaur views sex and love, as well as its affect on her relationship with her parents. The next three sections follow Kaur’s path towards healing and learning to love herself. Milk and Honey presents the negative effects felt by victims of
Most people don't consider the emotional effects of premarital sex. You see, sex is an emotional experience and it affects our lives in ways we don't understand. After engaging in premarital sex, many people express feelings of guilt, embarrassment, distrust, resentment, lack of respect, tension, and so much more. As you read the next section, consider God's love for you as a primary reason for sexual purity. God does not want you to experience unnecessary emotional pain!