Ode To Dirt By Sharon Old Summary

Learning to appreciate and prefer someone is a hard skill to achieve. In the poem, “Ode to Dirt” by Sharon Olds, the speaker and the dirt throughout the poem both celebrate and apologize to each other. Olds also conveys how her attitude changes towards the dirt over time. Throughout the poem, “Ode to Dirt”, Olds uses a combination of figurative language, such as personification and metaphors to explore the complex relationship between her and the dirt. Throughout the poem, Olds uses metaphors to show how the dirt and her are both praising each other. One way that the narrator praises is by using a metaphor to talk nicely and what it is like. The author calls the dirt, “You are the skin of our terrain” (Olds 8). This displays how she is praising

By the narrator apologizing to the dirt, it shows how humans often fail to treat the earth and how it is treated very poorly. In a part of the poem where the speaker apologizes to the dirt, “I thought that you were only the background for the leading characters the plants and animals and human animals” (2-4). She apologizes because the dirt is just so much more than dirt, it is the life to everything. By her saying these words, it is showing personification in the poem. Olds uses personification throughout this poem to show the complex relationship that the speaker has with the dirt. Another example of this being used in the poem is, “When I understood I had never honored you as a living equal, I was ashamed of myself, as if I had not recognized a character who looked so different from me” (9-13). This is an example of personification being used to apologize because the narrator is saying that she is ashamed that she did not recognize how much the dirt does and how it is important. The speaker is also giving life to the dirt by saying that it is a living equal to her even though they are two different living chattels. These are the ways that Olds uses literary elements in her poem to show how the narrator apologizes for what they have done to not respect the

The reason that praise is being given is because of all that she has done to the dirt. Also, how she has misinterpreted the reason that the dirt is here. One spot in the poem where this is being conveyed is, “you who have brought us forth, and fed us, and who at the end will take us in and rotate with us, and wobble, and orbit” (19-21). These lines convey how the speaker is praising the dirt because of everything that it has done and will continue to do for her. This also shows how the narrator and the relationship that she has evolved since the beginning of the poem because the speaker is not recognizing the good qualities the dirt has and how it has done so many different items for her. One more example of when the dirt gets praise is, “cousins of that first exploding from nothing—in our intricate equation together. O dirt, help us find ways to serve your life” (16-18). Praise is shown through these lines because she says that the dirt is finding ways to do the nitty-gritty for humans every day, and she appreciates that of the dirt. Throughout the poem, the speaker learned to give praise multiple times which showed her appreciation towards the