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Analysis Of Sex Without Love By Sharon Olds

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Sharon Olds is a contemporary poet and is known for writing intensely personal, emotional and political poems. “Sex Without Love” is an erotic poem that captures the beauty of having meaningless sex without love or pleasure. Sharon Olds shows the reader that the sex described in the poem is a cold and lonely act by effectively using imagery and theme, but she also puts an emotional and personal feeling in the poem.

In the beginning of the poem, the imagery created seemed like the poet was not criticizing having sex without love, but rather supporting it. The tone that was build up in the beginning was formal and made it seem like having sex without any pleasure is a beautiful act because the poet uses images like “beautiful dancers” and “ice skaters” who “glide”. This kind of confuses the reader, but this aspect of the poem means that even if there is no love between the two people, the act of sex is a beautiful thing in general. To the poet sex feels like “beautiful dancers” and “ice skaters” who “glide”.
“How do they do it, the ones who make love without love? Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice, fingers hooked inside each other's bodies, faces red as steak, wine, wet as the children at birth whose …show more content…

When the reader goes to find deeper meaning in her poems, it comes out to be a very personal and emotional piece of writing. Her poem “Sex Without Love” can connect the reader personally with society. A lot of people in the world are obsessed with the act of having sex. Olds shows the contrast between coldness and physical heat. (McGiveron). With society changing, new laws are becoming legal and same sex marriages are getting more common, it seems that the society is trying to explore because they are lost. They seem to be cold and are trying to see what is right for them and when people are exploring they are somewhat having loveless

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