rite of passage sharon olds summary

Rite of Passage Summary & Analysis by Sharon Olds

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis
• Poetic Devices
• Vocabulary & References
• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme
• Line-by-Line Explanations

Published in The Dead and the Living in 1984, Sharon Olds's "Rite of Passage" is a poem about the roots of male violence. The poem's speaker, the mother of a boy in first grade, observes the aggressive, competitive behavior of the boys at her son's birthday party. The group bonds over her son's boast that " We could easily kill a two-year-old ," a fantasy that ironically contrasts with his innocent appearance and physical vulnerability. The poem portrays this kind of aggression as an imitation of, and an initiation into, the violent culture of grown men.

• Read the full text of “Rite of Passage”

The Full Text of “Rite of Passage”

“rite of passage” summary, “rite of passage” themes.

Masculinity and Violence

Line-by-line explanation & analysis of “rite of passage”.

As the guests ... ... jaws and chins.

Hands in pockets, ... ... —I'm seven. —So?

They eye each ... ... arms and frown.

• Lines 12-15

I could beat ... ... on the table.

Lines 15-20

My son, ... ... out of me,

Lines 20-23

speaks up as ... ... his clear voice.

Lines 23-26

The other ... ... my son's life.

“Rite of Passage” Symbols

Childhood Competition

• Lines 22-26

“Rite of Passage” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

Alliteration.

• Line 6: “jostling, jockeying”
• Line 8: “Six,” “seven,” “So”
• Line 12: “fold,” “frown”
• Line 13: “seven says,” “six”
• Line 15: “turret,” “table”
• Line 16: “cheeks”
• Line 17: “chest”
• Line 26: “celebrating,” “son's”
• Line 5: “pockets”
• Line 13: “seven says”
• Line 16: “freckles,” “specks,” “nutmeg”
• Line 26: “playing,” “celebrating”
• Lines 3-4: “short men, men in first grade / with smooth jaws and chins.”
• Lines 15-26: “My son, / freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks, / chest narrow as the balsa keel of a / model boat, long hands / cool and thin as the day they guided him / out of me, speaks up as a host / for the sake of the group. / We could easily kill a two-year-old / , / he says in his clear voice. The other / men agree, they clear their throats / like Generals, they relax and get down to / playing war, celebrating my son's life.”

Parallelism

• Line 3: “short men, men in first grade”
• Line 6: “jostling, jockeying for place,”
• Lines 9-12: “They eye each other, seeing themselves / tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their / throats a lot, a room of small bankers, / they fold their arms and frown.”
• Lines 16-20: “freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks, / chest narrow as the balsa keel of a / model boat, long hands / cool and thin as the day they guided him / out of me,”
• Lines 24-26: “they clear their throats / like Generals, they relax and get down to / playing war, celebrating my son's life.”
• Lines 1-2: “party / they”
• Lines 3-4: “grade / with”
• Lines 5-6: “around / jostling”
• Lines 7-8: “another / How”
• Lines 9-10: “themselves / tiny”
• Lines 10-11: “their / throats”
• Lines 12-13: “you / up”
• Lines 14-15: “a / turret”
• Lines 17-18: “a / model”
• Lines 18-19: “hands / cool”
• Lines 19-20: “him / out”
• Lines 20-21: “host / for”
• Lines 23-24: “other / men”
• Lines 24-25: “throats / like”
• Lines 25-26: “to / playing”
• Line 3: “men, men”
• Line 6: “jostling, jockeying,” “place, small”
• Line 7: “calming. One”
• Line 8: “you? —Six. —I'm seven. —So?”
• Line 9: “other, seeing”
• Line 10: “pupils. They”
• Line 11: “lot, a”
• Lines 12-12: “frown. / I”
• Lines 13-13: “up, / a”
• Line 14: “cake, round”
• Line 15: “turret, behind,” “table. My”
• Line 18: “boat, long”
• Line 20: “me, speaks”
• Line 23: “voice. The”
• Line 24: “agree, they”
• Line 25: “Generals, they”
• Line 26: “war, celebrating”
• Lines 14-15: “the midnight cake, round and heavy as a / turret,”
• Lines 24-25: “they clear their throats / like Generals,”
• Line 6: “jockeying for place”
• Lines 10-11: “They clear their / throats a lot, a room of small bankers,”
• Lines 23-24: “The other / men agree,”

“Rite of Passage” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Midnight cake
• (Location in poem: Lines 5-6: “they stand around / jostling, jockeying for place,”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Rite of Passage”

Rhyme scheme, “rite of passage” speaker, “rite of passage” setting, literary and historical context of “rite of passage”, more “rite of passage” resources, external resources.

The Poem Aloud — Watch Olds read "Rite of Passage" (starting at 18:35).

The Poet's Life and Work — A biography of Olds at the Poetry Foundation.

An Interview with the Poet — Olds discusses the challenges of writing about family.

A Talk by the Poet — Watch Olds deliver a lecture on the craft of poetry.

The Poet's Website — Browse books and media related to Sharon Olds at her website.

Everything you need for every book you read.

Rite of Passage

By Sharon Olds

As the guests arrive at our son’s party they gather in the living room— short men, men in first grade with smooth jaws and chins. Hands in pockets, they stand around jostling, jockeying for place, small fights breaking out and calming. One says to another How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So? They eye each other, seeing themselves tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their throats a lot, a room of small bankers, they fold their arms and frown. I could beat you up, a seven says to a six, the midnight cake, round and heavy as a turret behind them on the table. My son, freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks, chest narrow as the balsa keel of a model boat, long hands cool and thin as the day they guided him out of me, speaks up as a host for the sake of the group. We could easily kill a two-year-old , he says in his clear voice . The other men agree, they clear their throats like Generals, they relax and get down to playing war, celebrating my son’s life.

Summary of Rite of Passage

• Popularity of “Rite of Passage”: The poem ‘Rite of Passage’ was written by Sharon Olds, an American teacher, creative writing tutor, and poet. This poetic composition captures the attention to its thought-provoking exploration of a ritual. The poem first appeared in her collection, Strike Sparks published in 2004. By presenting children as if they were adults, behaving in a rebellious manner to showcase their strength and authority, the poetic output becomes truly entertaining.
• “ Rite of Passage” As a Representative of Children’s World: The poem opens with the title having a pun on “rite”. In a captivating manner, the poet narrates the tale of her son’s birthday party, highlighting the significance of his friends’ arrival. She paints a beautiful picture of the gathering of the boys of six or seven years old, behaving as if they are living in the world of adults. They jostle, jockey, push and nudge each other. Their conversation revolves around various subjects , including their age, manners, and present circumstances. How they stand, feel, move and talk becomes a matter of great interest for the poet that she has presented as if they are going to fight like the adults do in battles, posing themselves generals and fighters, with one of them asserting that they could kill a younger one. While it is only a celebration of her son’s birthday, the act of playing war seems to have a figurative importance in our lives.
• Major Themes in “Rite of Passage”: Importance of celebrations, mixing of children, and behaving in a belligerent manner are three important themes of this poem. The poem portrays the birthday gathering of her son, highlighting that he welcomed all his friends, who are approximately his age. This turns into a celebration where they can mingle and gain insights into living in harmony and sharing resources. However, what comes out is their belligerent behavior, as if they are fighting a war leading their respective armies as generals.

Analysis of Literary Devices Used In Rite of Passage

literary devices enhance the aesthetic, significance, and enigmatic nature of poetic works. Sharon Olds  also used some literary devices in this poem whose analysis is as follows.

• Assonance : Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /a/ and /e/ in “Hands in pockets, they stand around” the sound of /ee/ in “They eye each other, seeing themselves” and the sound of /aw/ in “model boat, long hands”.
• Alliteration : The poem shows the use of alliteration in the shape of initial consonant sounds of the neighboring words, such as the sound of /h/ in “he holds” and the sound of /j/ in “jostling, jockeying”.
• Consonance : Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /l/ in “ We could easily kill a two-year-old ” and the sound of /r/ in “men agree, they clear their throats”.
• Enjambment : It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break ; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example;

We could easily kill a two-year-old , he says in his clear voice. The other men agree, they clear their throats like Generals, they relax and get down to playing war, celebrating my son’s life.

• Imagery : Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. Sharon Olds used imagery in this poem such as “Hands in pockets, they stand”, “They fold their arms and frown. I could beat you” and “the midnight cake, round and heavy as / turret behind them on the table”.
• Metaphor : The title of the poem is an extended metaphor . Some other metaphors are generals and bankers used for children. Their jostling and jockeying are also metaphors for battle.
• Symbolism : Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The poem shows the use of symbols fights such as speaking, jostling, nudging, and pushing.
• Simile : The poem shows the use of similes, such as Freckles like specks and chest as narrow as the balsa keel.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Rite of Passage

Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

• Diction and Tone : The poem shows beautiful yet colloquial diction . The tone is serious, though, it becomes ironic by the end.
• Free Verse : The poem does not follow any rhyme scheme . Therefore, it is a free verse poem.
• Stanza : A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. The poem is a single stanza with 26 verses.

Quotes to be Used

These lines from “Rite of Passage” are appropriate to quote when talking about the behavior of the children.

As the guests arrive at our son’s party they gather in the living room— short men, men in first grade with smooth jaws and chins.

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Rite of Passage

By sharon olds.

As the guests arrive at our son’s party they gather in the living room— short men, men in first grade with smooth jaws and chins. Hands in pockets, they stand around jostling, jockeying for place, small fights breaking out and calming. One says to another How old are you? —Six. —I’m seven. —So? They eye each other, seeing themselves tiny in the other’s pupils. They clear their throats a lot, a room of small bankers, they fold their arms and frown. I could beat you up, a seven says to a six, the midnight cake, round and heavy as a turret behind them on the table. My son, freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks, chest narrow as the balsa keel of a model boat, long hands cool and thin as the day they guided him out of me, speaks up as a host for the sake of the group. We could easily kill a two-year-old, he says in his clear voice. The other men agree, they clear their throats like Generals, they relax and get down to playing war, celebrating my son’s life.

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Rite Of Passage Sharon Olds Summary

The loss of innocence is often synonomous with growing up. Children are pure and innocent and, once they are shown the atrocities one can experience in life and gain awareness, they lose their innocence and move from “innocent” to “experienced.” In “Rite of Passage,” by Sharon Olds, the central theme is the loss of innocence. Olds uses imagery, similes, and extended metaphors to help convey the theme of the poem to the reader. The poem has a serious and mature tone for its content. The narrator is a little boy’s mother and with her voice, she helps the reader see her son evolving in different ways and becoming a “little man,” showing the reader this concept of losing innocence. Olds engages readers with the opening line, “As the guests arrive at my son’s party / They gather in the living room-- / Short men, men in first grade” (lines 1-3 ). Olds’ use of the word “guest” gives the boys more of an importance than one would normally think of with a child. Her description makes the boys seem older than what they are, giving the poem a mature tone. She makes the reader understand and feel the boys’ personas by describing them as, “Short men, men in first grade” (Olds line 3). Her description of the birthday party is more significant than the initial first read. It is supposed to be …show more content…

The boys are all there to celebrate when she brings him out as a peace maker. He sees all the commotion over who is stronger and bigger boy and makes a statement that puts all the boys at ease. His statement of, “We could easily kill a two year old” (Olds line 22) is the strongest image Olds uses in the poem. His words, said easily and without any doubt, remove his innocence that the readers have come to associate him with. His thought process seems much older than we initially see. He now seems to speak with experience, and as though he is a man. He depicts someone who is ready, collected, and could take care of a problem if they needed

Loss of Innocence in Sarah´s Key

• 1 Works Cited

A child is known for having innocence, and bad experiences strip kids of it. In Sarah’s

Analysis of the Poem Enter without So Much As Knocking by ruce Dawe

The young man in the poem loses his identity as he develops into the ruthless world of adulthood with its dehumanizing competition of ‘money-hungry, back-stabbing’ and ‘so-and-so.’ These exaggerated words and clichés

Literary Devices In A White Heron

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

Loss of Innocence in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood Essay

"All things truly wicked start from an innocence,” states Ernest Hemingway on his view of innocence. Innocence, what every youth possesses, is more accurately described as a state of unknowing but not ignorance- which connotation suggests a blissfully positive view of the world. Most youth are protected from the harsh realities of the adult world. Therefore they are able to maintain their state of innocence. While innocence normally wanes over time, sometimes innocence can be abruptly taken away. Some of the characters in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood lost their innocence due to the traumatic events they experienced in childhood and adulthood while some had none to begin with.

Analysis Of The Chase Annie Dillard

All good things must come to an end. A common phrase we have become accustomed to hearing, and a phrase that parallels the meaning of Annie Dillard’s “The Chase”, an excerpt from her autobiography “An American Childhood.” In “The Chase” (1987), Annie Dillard recounts how childhood, no matter how enjoyable, will come to a close. Dillard conveys this by carefully detailing her childhood experience as a tomboy and that “nothing girls did could not compare” (1). Her experience during “the chase” symbolized an end of Dillard's childhood and wishing for “the glory to last forever” (19). The author recounts her story of “the chase” in order to express exuberance and love for childhood compared to the fact of mandatory growing old. The author addresses the audience in this narrative chapter of “An American Childhood” to express how short childhood is is this passing craze of life. The author uses expertly composed imagery, parallelism, diction and tone to create the impactful story in a chapter of her autobiography.

Analysis Of Our Son Swear He Has 102 Gallons Of Water In His Body

Throughout the poem, the speaker uses specific details that show the conflict between the speaker’s son and his parents. In the first stanza, the speaker recalls exchanges of dialogue between the speaker and his or her son. For example, the speaker’s son exclaims, “I did the problem / and my teacher said I was right!” (Nye 3-4). The child validated his teacher’s opinion but ridiculed his parents’ opinion. This is further explained through more details in a later part of the same stanza. The mother explains how the son believed his parents were “idiots / without worksheets to back us up” (Nye 9-10). The speaker’s son had entrusted his teacher and thought of his teacher as highly intelligent, but believed that way because of foolish reasoning. In addition, the speaker lists examples of minor mistakes the parents made that caused the son to be embarrassed of them. Through distinct details, the speaker describes how the son’s “mother never remembers / what a megabyte means and his dad fainted on an airplane once / and smashed his head on the drinks cart” (Nye 10-12). By choosing to include these particular details, the poet outlines the foundation of the conflict between the son and his parents.

Poem Analysis Of 'A Story' By Li-Young Lee

The first stanza, which contains the son’s childish speech, is short, only three lines. However, by the stanza which contains the son’s angry talkback, the stanza is double in length, having four lines. Each line represents a literal level of maturity and growth that the son has gained. As time moves on, he is able to gain more and more experience in life. As his experience accumulates over time, so does his hostility. His terse, childish begging for his father to simply read another story turns to an angry speech about how he no longer beleievs in his father as an authority figure. Despite this, the son’s psyche changes back, as all this maturation is played out in the father’s head, and when he returns, he is back to his childish self, bu this stanza is the longest in the poem. This suggests that when someone is able to mature enough, they are able to comprehend more of the world than they did before, and are able to act

Theme Of Marigolds

Adolescence is a bumpy and unknown section of the road known as life. Both the short story “Marigolds” by Eugenia Collier and the poem “Hard on the Gas,” by Janet S. Wong relate to the theme that “the road to growing up and maturing isn’t always smooth”. “Marigolds is the story of an adolescent who is growing up in the Great Depression. Through hard experiences and tumultuous emotions, the narrator learns that growing up is full of ups and downs. “Hard on the Gas” is a poem about a grandchild driving with his or her grandfather. The grandchild realizes that the road isn’t always perfect and that there will be bumps along the way. The theme “the road growing up and maturing isn’t always smooth” is conveyed in both of these selection.

Analysis Of Melanie Mccabe's 'Paperboy'

At the beginning of the poem, the speaker, a twelve-year-old girl, is instantly gripped by a strong feeling of lust toward this mysterious seventeen-year-old boy: the paperboy. She even goes on to describe him as a “gift. A fluke from God” as if she believes that she and this boy are destined to be together (2). From her vantage point, the girl instantly notices the boy’s physical characteristics, traits which the young girl appears to admire when she describes the boy’s “bicep in the twilight” (3). This intense, love-at-first-sight reaction to the boy’s arm shows how irrational the girl’s feelings are. She seems to simply lust after the idea of him. The girl has “no memory of language” from their nightly encounters, further showing how this “relationship” was merely visual and very one-sided (6). The boy, potentially, never even notices the girl; and if he does, he does not acknowledge her presence, let alone her strong emotions. The only memories the girl has are from “loitering, lingering far past curfew,” times in which she merely stares at the boy while he completes his daily paper route (7). The girl's depictions of her mother "lost in steam, stirring" and her father "asleep beside his Manhattan, the half-read mail" almost puts the reader directly into the house. The girl, meanwhile, lost her in her emotions, wanders around her yard "without knowing what I longed for" (16). The parents, both focused on other activities, leave the twelve-year-old speaker to do as she pleases in the night.

Essay on Lullabies for Little Criminals

Childhood is a crucial time in a person’s life and it needs to be kept innocent and pure for the child’s well-being later in life. The most important recurring theme in the novel Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill is the loss of innocence at a young age and the profound complications later in life. The complete loss of innocence is built-up with multiple different experiences over time. For Baby, these experiences are: when she is first exposed to drug use, when she spends time in foster care and when she becomes engaged in prostitution.

The Scarlet Ibis Analysis

In many cultures, coming of age is often celebrated because children become young adults who grasp self-awareness and accountability. At the same time, childhood is threatened by responsibility, which is dreaded because there is an unpredictable world of adulthood waiting with no guarantees. James Hurst demonstrates the journey of growing up through life experiences everyone goes through in the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”. Throughout his use of mood, setting, and symbolism, Hurst shows that maturing requires reflecting on past experiences and losing innocence, which then can transform one’s outlook on life.

Ways Hartley and Frayn present Childhood in The Go-Between and Spies

p. 82). Therefore, the adult narrator’s ability to comment and reflect on his child-self effectively emphasizes the naïve and vulnerable nature of youth, and contributes to the mood of foreboding and suspense throughout the novel, ‘now I was over confident. I expected things to go my way’ (Chapter 1. p. 28).

Loss in The Secret Lion by Rios Essay examples

The first example of the children losing their innocence is when they are describing the transition from elementary school to junior high school. Each has found that instead of one teacher, they in fact had many teachers. Additionally, the girls they were once friends with, now different in size and grace, ignored them. This becomes apparent that things have change as a result of age.

Rite Of Passage By Sharon Olds Summary

The poem Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds is a poem about a mother chaperoning her son’s birthday party. The boy and his friends are in first grade and of course they are behaving as first graders would. They say things like, “How old are you? Six. – I’m seven. –So?” (8) And “I can beat you up, / a seven says to a six” (13-14). The boys are behaving their age. The boys are competitive, irrational and youthful. However, the mother envisions her son and his friends as mature men. She first introduces them in the opening line as “guests” rather than peers or playmates. She describes them as “short men, me in first grade with smooth jaws and chins” (3-4).

Ee Cummings In Just Analysis

The poem starts off bright in the spring and illustrates this place as “mud luscious” (Lines 2-3). These words symbolizes the children’s outlook on life, which is jolly and full of innocence. On the other hand, there is a “lame balloon man” (line 4), representing adults negative perspective of society. The different opinions of adults clearly mean that they have been through different stages of life, although mostly negative. Furthermore, they are far more experienced and have gone through the process of becoming an adult and have now become less appreciative of the things they used to love when they were young, such as playing in the mud.

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Rites of Passage Summary and Analysis

FreeBookNotes found 1 site with book summaries or analysis of Rites of Passage . If there is a Rites of Passage SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below.

Among the summaries and analysis available for Rites of Passage , there is 1 Full Study Guide.

Depending on the study guide provider (SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc.), the resources below will generally offer Rites of Passage chapter summaries, quotes, and analysis of themes, characters, and symbols.

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Our summary of rites of passage by sharon olds.

Sharon Olds's work titled 'Rites of Passage' is a poem that centers on a mother's observations during her son's birthday party. Olds is the speaker of the poem. She begins the poem by first introducing the guests of males, who are young boys gathering the living room. They are all in the first grade with 'smooth jaws and chins.' They have their hands in their pockets, standing around 'jostling, jockeying for place. Each young boy reveals his age, and eyes each other with their tiny pupils. They appear to be clearing their throats, folding their arms and exhibiting a frown. Olds hints at their futures by referring to them as 'small bankers.' As an observer of the party, Olds brings to focus the entire room. There is a cake on the table, 'round and heavy.' She alludes that her young son had to be guided out of her, suggesting that maleness comes out of femaleness. This group of six and seven year olds commands a greater attention than younger members of their gender. By the end of 'Rites of Passage,' the young boys 'clear their throats like Generals' and get down to the business of 'playing war' by 'celebrating my son's life.'

More Books by Sharon Olds

FreeBookNotes has 4 more books by Sharon Olds, with a total of 7 study guides.

Summary Of Rite Of Passage By Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds “Rite of Passage” The “Rite of Passage” of Sharon Olds, talks about kids who came to the author (who is omnipotent) son’s birthday party. All the kids are boys and who show a real impressive grown-ups attitude that remind the author of little powerful army general ready to go to war. The tone used in the poem is sad, and ironic towards the forthcoming of the kids. The used of the imagery comes to reinforce the sense of battle and the poetic form here comes to some degree disorganized, like the chaos of a war. The narrator creates here a personage in “Rite of Passage” that analyses the individual behaviors of the six to seven year old anniversary guests and give the impression of being sorrowful towards the deficiency of naivety …show more content…

She illustrates the kids, with their hands in pockets, with smooth jaws and chins, their freckles, their smallness, and she uses the figure of speech simile and connotation in her lyrical language, as it is described in this sentence: “My son, freckles like specks of nutmeg on his cheeks,… long hands cool and thin as the day they guided him out of me,…”(703), signifying that while the little man fantasizes to have that dangerous grown-up outside, he is delicate beneath all that appearance. Yet, she uses the simile, in the sentence where she says: “the dark cake, round and heavy as a turret, behind them on the table” (703), and this time to show the contrast of the birthday cake and a weapon of war, the turret perhaps on the top of a tank, like she described it being on top of the …show more content…

The author’s sentence structure does not rhyme, diverges in length and in connotation, more often observing the children, some other times her own feelings. Some of the sentences are evocative or descriptive, while some others are spoken comments going back and forth between the kids. She, as well touches back upon her own past; when she was bringing back some memories of the birth of her child : “… long hands cool and thin as the day they guided him out of me” (703). While the sentences run and read easily, as a cheerful child’s birthday party, they have no verse, or alliteration, which for a poem can seem paradoxical, as the adult original sound of the theme. One sure can get the feeling from which Sharon Olds is unhappy about the forfeiture of naivety of her son and she has the feeling that the upcoming of him is already placed in a disappointed manner, like they are going to grow up with conflict in their thoughts. On the other hands, when she says: “…they relax, and get down to playing war, celebrating my son’s life,” (703) she appears to still give optimism and a way out. In spite of everything, they are just kids and are barely imitating what they observe in their everyday lives and as far as they can distinguish, it is just

Li-Young Lee A Story Analysis

For the entire duration of the poem, the reader is able to infer how the complexity of the relationship changes and how the father feels about his son through the techniques and methods stated above. Within A Story, Lee uses point of view from both characters to convey the idea that the father’s relationship with his son is indeed, increasingly complex. The reader also learns from this point of view technique that the time of thought within the poem constantly changes. The boy’s young age is shown clearly in the beginning of the poem as: “His five-year-old son waits in his lap.”

Rites Of Passage In Into The Wild By Jon Krakauer

A rite of passage is an important event or ceremony that marks a person's transition from one stage of life to another. It is a ritual that marks a person's transition from one stage of life to another, such as from childhood to adulthood. It is a way of recognizing and celebrating the changes that occur in a person's life. In many cultures, rites of passage are seen as a way of honoring the individual and their journey.

In Sharon Olds’ poem, “Rite of Passage”, she explores the expectations of what it takes to be a man, doing so by describing a gathering of young boys at her son’s birthday party. The young boys in the poem act in such a way as to imitate men, making clear what type of behavior they believe is expected from men, which is seen throughout the poem through their interactions with one another. It is this imitation that is the rite of passage which gives the poem its name. While the title of the poem denotes an event that we tend to think of as being concrete and a milestone in itself, it is used in this case to illustrate the transition between the innocence of childhood and the seriousness of adulthood even if, like in the poem, it is only the pretense of such.

Compare And Contrast Dui Doi And Persepolis

There are many examples of how children are and were affected by war in both Dien Cai Dau and Persepolis. Many people overlook how children are effected, they mainly think of the soldiers participating. Both Yusef Komunyakaa and Marjane Satrapi express the impact that wars have on children. In Dien Cai Dau’s, “Dui Doi, Dust of Life”, Komunyakaa writes a very meaningful poem about what it’s like to be the product of relationship that happened in Vietnam.

Richard Wright Rite Of Passage Summary

Surviving Alone The ‘Rite of Passage’ by Richard Wright has a preeminent place in the literary world because this book teaches a lesson of survival, white power, and influence. Wright is an American author who wrote novels, poems, and short stories. He is best known for his book ‘Black Boy’ and ‘Native Son’. The book ‘Rite of Passage’ written by Richard Wright is about a 15 year old boy who has straight A’s in school and the people he has lived with all his life is not really his family, which leads to his debacle journey.

Summary Of I Go Back To May 1937 By Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds wrote this poem to demonstrate her perspective of her parents wedding. In this poem, she shows her dislike towards her parents’ marriage. This commentary will discuss how Sharon Olds displays her disliking regarding her parents’ marriage, through this poem. The first thing that can be seen in this poem to the reader is that it has a free-verse structure and does not have rhyme scheme. The next aspect of the poem that would be seen by the reader is the title which is “I Go Back to May 1937”, this already gives the reader the impression that the author is going to be reminiscing about something in her past, in the case of this poem she was reflecting upon an event for which she had not been present for, her parents wedding.

Short Story 'Rite Of Passage' By Doug Beardsley

In the short story "Rite of Passage" by Doug Beardsley, the narrator is an inexperienced but determined hockey player. At the beginning of the story the narrator is unable to succeed as well as the other players "…I'd missed yet another check…" More importantly he is incapable of playing hockey at the same level as his brother. The narrator does not have great agility in his skating technique, yet he is still determined to do all he can to succeed “I don’t know what I did but it worked.” He was able to get around his brother and score a goal on his own. After scoring a goal, the narrator no longer feels below his brother "I received a new, quiet respect from my brother."

Rite Of Passage Essay

When I was sixteen, I made the transition from an online high school student to a college student. This transition differs from other’s, as generally people enter college as an adult, after completing high school. I, on the other hand, was transitioning from high school to college before getting a high school diploma, beginning in my junior year. Therefore, I would be completing high school and college at the same time. Moreover, I was also transitioning from an online environment to an in person one.

Joan Didion On Going Home Analysis

Analysis Joan Didion essay: On Going Home In ‘On Going Home’, the motivation of Joan Didion is her frustration with the city life of Los Angeles and its comparison with the ‘home life’ she had in Central Valley of California. The particular occurrence which intrigued her to write her thoughts is her visit to ‘home’ and ‘family’ at her daughters’ first birthday. The motivation to write the essay resides in her personal conflict as she observes her strong sense of belonging to her family values and the meaninglessness of these values in her current life with her husband.

Examples Of Rite Of Passage

The rite of passage that is the most significant to me is “ Just be yourself”I picked this story because… One of the reasons that is picked this story is because in the story it says “you have some friends in the cafeteria but you think you don’t fit in”. Like this part of the story says i have friend but i don’t think i am fitting in.

Essay On Rite Of Passage

Rajeh Alhajeri Christian Petersen ANTH 1100 04/26/2015 A High School Graduation In every society, there are certain times when the members of society move to a different point, or social role, in their lives. Often, these role changes are marked by rituals or ceremonies, which symbolize a move from one social stage of life to another. These ceremonies are also known as rites of passage, which are completed in three phases: the separation phase, the transition phase and the incorporation phase.

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Literary Analysis: A Hymn To Childhood

In the poem, “A Hymn to Childhood,” Li-Young Lee talks about having fragmented individuality from childhood due to war. He is lost in perception of a traumatic childhood caused by war and a normal naïve childhood. Lee depicts the two diverged childhoods from his memory through the use of antithesis to emphasize the world perceived by a self fragmented individual. Throughout the poem, he consistently presents two opposing ideas to show what it feels like to grow up with emotional trauma.

Short Story Rite Of Passage

Fantasy and science fiction short stories aimed at young adult and middle grade readers. "Rite of Passage" Twelve-year-old twins Jaeda and Kaedin are preparing for their society's rite of passage. Kaedin's hoping to get magic. Jaeda just wants to survive. But neither are prepared for the surprise awaiting them.

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10 of the Best Sharon Olds Poems Everyone Should Read

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

The American poet Sharon Olds (born 1942) was born and raised in California and educated at Stanford, although she has spent much of her adult life in New York City. Although she began writing under the shadow of other poets such as Gary Snyder and George Oppen, she resolved to write her way out from under the influence of earlier masters.

The result was her debut poetry collection, Satan Says , in 1980; other award-winning collections, such as The Dead and the Living (1984), followed. The Sign of Saturn , a 1991 selection of her early work, offers a good way in to her wonderful work and world. Michael Ondaatje, the author of The English Patient , perhaps put it best when he described Olds’ poetry as ‘pure fire in the hands’.

As she puts it in one poem, her work is about ‘paying attention to small beauties’, although her work doesn’t shy away from confronting the ghosts from her own childhood and the darker aspects of history.

Freeing herself from (male) poetic influence also entailed freeing herself from social restrictions about what women could do and be: there is a glorious rebelliousness in her work.

Although choosing the ten ‘best’ poems of such a prolific and significant poet is always going to prove difficult, depending as it does on individual preferences and interpretations, below we have endeavoured to select and introduce ten of Sharon Olds’ best – and best-known – poems that are widely considered to be some of her most powerful and acclaimed.

1. ‘ Satan Says ’.

This witty and subversive poem – the title poem from Olds’ debut 1980 collection –

challenges traditional religious views on femininity and sexuality, offering a feminist perspective on Eve and the Garden of Eden as the young girl is encouraged by Satan – in the form of a snake – to curse her parents and, indeed, curse more generally. (Warning: contains strong language!)

2. ‘ I Go Back to May 1937 ’.

One of Olds’ best-known poems, this one demonstrates why she has sometimes been compared to Sylvia Plath (although the comparison is something of a stretch).

It sees the poet go back to the year her parents met, five years before Olds herself was born. Knowing the trouble that lay ahead in their marriage, and the effect that would have on Olds’ childhood, she wants to reach out and tell them to stop, enjoining them, ‘don’t do it’ because they are no good for each other.

But if they didn’t get together, she would never exist, so she ends up saying nothing to them. Instead, she realises she can take consolation in the fact that she can ‘tell about it’ through her poetry.

3. ‘ The Language of the Brag ’.

Another classic poem from her debut collection, ‘The Language of the Brag’ addresses male American poets such as Walt Whitman and Allen Ginsberg, announcing that she wants to do ‘what you wanted to do’ and find ‘some epic use’ for her body. Whitman, of course, wrote the celebrated ‘I Sing the Body Electric’; is Olds’ poem the female response to the celebration?

4. ‘ True Love ’.

Among other things, Sharon Olds is one of the best love poets of the last half-century. More than that, she writes well about sex, as here, in the long, breathlessly liberated sentence describing two people ‘bound’ to one another through friendship. ‘I know where you are / with my eyes closed’: two people bound together ‘with huge invisible threads’. Beautiful.

5. ‘ Rite of Passage ’.

This poem shows Olds’ ability to home in on a fairly ordinary domestic scene – here, her young son’s birthday party – and tease out the darker undercurrents she can already perceive.

However, these darker aspects are shot through with grim humour: the notion of her seven-year-old son proclaiming to his friends that they could easily kill a two-year-old, for instance, wryly hints at how older boys, still some years off adulthood, talk themselves up as bigger and more powerful than they are.

6. ‘ To You, from Your Secret Admirer ’.

This poem immediately wrongfoots us, beginning as if the speaker of the poem is addressing a lover. But ‘secret admirer’ in the title provides a clue: the conversations she has are with herself and nobody else, as she imagines the things she would say to the one she loves, after they have made love.

But is ‘love’ really the word for what she feels? It sounds more like lust twinned with a (mild, or not so mild?) obsession, as the poem develops …

7. ‘ After Making Love in Winter ’.

The title of this powerful poem – one of Olds’ finest about the erotic side of love – says it all: initially feeling intensely cold after making love in the depths of winter, the speaker can still feel the heat at those points where ‘our bodies touch like / blooms of fire’.

8. ‘ The Planned Child ’.

Most people, upon learning they were a ‘mistake’ whom their parents conceived by accident, feel disheartened by the revelation that their arrival in the world wasn’t planned. This poem takes the opposite view: in learning that her conception was planned in a methodical, almost cold manner, the speaker blanches at the fact.

It takes a comment from her lover, who remarks that it was obvious she was a child who was ‘wanted’, to make her see things differently and feel that her mother could not live without her in her life.

9. ‘ Mother ’.

Here’s another poem Sharon Olds wrote about her mother, a devout woman who was in thrall to ‘three fathers’: her own, her husband (Sharon Olds’ father), and God the Father. But here, the poet celebrates her mother as a ‘Druid mother’, a kind of pagan figure born of the trees and the natural world.

10. ‘ His Stillness ’.

Let’s conclude with a poem Olds wrote about her father, focusing on the moment when he was told by the doctor that he was dying of a terminal illness. Olds recalls how, contrary to her expectations, her father remained completely still when he was told this, like ‘a holy man’ and ‘with the dignity of a foreign leader’.

The poem unsentimentally yet touchingly recounts how the poet came to realise she had lived her whole life up until that point without really knowing her father, and the dignity he was capable of.

These are just a few of Sharon Olds’ many remarkable poems. Her work is known for its emotional depth (and charge), and the way she handles challenging themes while also shining a light on those ‘small beauties’.

2 thoughts on “10 of the Best Sharon Olds Poems Everyone Should Read”

Sharon Olds is incredibly talented bringing out emotions in her readers never before recognized. I have found a new muse in her and permission to write my true self.

A gifted poetess

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Rite of Passage

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