they tumble and fight and they're beautiful
two completely different poems that i love.
The One Girl at the Boys' Party - Sharon Olds
"When I take our girl to the swimming party
I set her down among the boys. They tower and
bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek,
her math scores unfolding in the air around her.
They will strip to their suits, her body hard and
indivisible as a prime number,
they'll plunge in the deep end, she'll subtract
her height from ten feet, divide it into
hundreds of gallons of water, the numbers
bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine
in the bright blue pool. When they climb out,
her ponytail will hand its pencil lead
down her back, her narrow silk suit
with hamburgers and french fries printed on it
will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will
see her sweet face, solemn and
sealed, a factor of one, and she will
see their eyes, two each,
their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes,
one each, and in her head she'll be doing her
wild multiplying, as the drops
sparkle and fall into the power of a thousand from her body."
I usually don't like feminists but I feel that this poem is very different from the stereotypical view of what a feminist is. Instead of tearing down men and focusing on how women feel bad about themselves, Olds focuses on the positive. She highlights the power that this little girl has over these boys. This girl is intelligent and knows the power she possesses through her mind and her sexuality.
Dulce Et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
"Bent double, like old beggar under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a mand in a fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high vest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."
This poem is absolutely beautiful. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" completely deromanticizes war and the glory of dying for one's country. To add to this theme, it was written by a soldier while he was in the hospital. After his recovery he was sent to the front line and killed.
The One Girl at the Boys' Party - Sharon Olds
"When I take our girl to the swimming party
I set her down among the boys. They tower and
bristle, she stands there smooth and sleek,
her math scores unfolding in the air around her.
They will strip to their suits, her body hard and
indivisible as a prime number,
they'll plunge in the deep end, she'll subtract
her height from ten feet, divide it into
hundreds of gallons of water, the numbers
bouncing in her mind like molecules of chlorine
in the bright blue pool. When they climb out,
her ponytail will hand its pencil lead
down her back, her narrow silk suit
with hamburgers and french fries printed on it
will glisten in the brilliant air, and they will
see her sweet face, solemn and
sealed, a factor of one, and she will
see their eyes, two each,
their legs, two each, and the curves of their sexes,
one each, and in her head she'll be doing her
wild multiplying, as the drops
sparkle and fall into the power of a thousand from her body."
I usually don't like feminists but I feel that this poem is very different from the stereotypical view of what a feminist is. Instead of tearing down men and focusing on how women feel bad about themselves, Olds focuses on the positive. She highlights the power that this little girl has over these boys. This girl is intelligent and knows the power she possesses through her mind and her sexuality.
Dulce Et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen
"Bent double, like old beggar under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!-An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a mand in a fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high vest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori."
This poem is absolutely beautiful. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" completely deromanticizes war and the glory of dying for one's country. To add to this theme, it was written by a soldier while he was in the hospital. After his recovery he was sent to the front line and killed.