Sex Without Love Cummings Analysis

Though it is often assumed that discussions of sex in literature have become less taboo or less censored only in recent decades, explorations of sexuality have existed for centuries. Sharon Olds’s “Sex Without Love,” a contemporary poem that is explicit in its explorations of sex, may seem more open or progressive in its views towards sex simply because it is direct in its subject matter, but this is not necessarily the case. “she being Brand,” a poem by e.e. cummings relishes in its sexuality, despite the fact that it thinly veils sex behind an extended metaphor about driving a new car.. While both Olds and cummings use unconventional language to express the sexuality that is present in their poems, the way in which their use of language

The speaker explicitly describes lovers intertwined, writing of “fingers hooked / inside each other’s bodies” (4-5) and “light / rising slowly as steam off their joined / skin” (11-13). While there may not be a romantic connection between these lovers, as the poem discusses and as is emphasized by the line break between “joined” and “skin” (12-13), the physical and sexual connection present in the poem is undeniable. Yet Olds further emphasizes the sexual themes of the poem in a brief moment of stylistic repetition. As the speaker describes these lovers, their coherent speech

Following Olds’s momentary repetition, the remaining fifteen lines of the poem are simply a distanced meditation on casual sex, all of which are written and punctuated expectedly. cummings, on the other hand, seems to relish in the sexuality of his language, using it consistently and, towards the end of the poem, in a much more explicitly sexual manner. The beginning of “she being Brand” veils the subject matter of sex behind the metaphor of driving a new car, with the speaker making mention of things like “her radiator” (7) and “the / clutch” (9-10). The last stanzas, however, make the poem’s sexuality undeniable, with the chaotic and unconventional use of language reaching a peak in the final