Mention Containing Books The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series)
| Title | : | The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series) |
| Author | : | Sharon Olds |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 112 pages |
| Published | : | February 12th 1987 by Knopf Publishing Group |
| Categories | : | Poetry. Fiction. Literature |
Sharon Olds
Paperback | Pages: 112 pages Rating: 4.23 | 2315 Users | 101 Reviews
Commentary Conducive To Books The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series)
I think "The Gold Cell" rests more comfortably in the 3.5 star space, but alas. Is this a great volume? Not to my mind. It is a quite good one, very solid in places, and stunning in a few. The thing is, just as it shines brightly in some moments, it falls entirely dull at others. I found the section on her father (the second?) to be particularly trying to work through. The book is broken into four parts: one outside of the biographical (?) narrator's vantage point; one directed to her father; one to her lovers and concerning her sexuality; one regarding the experiences and sensations of motherhood.Knowing me--as you don't--and my unadulterated idolatry of poets like Plath and Sexton, this book should have floored me. As I said, when Olds is able to boil something down, she can be incredibly effective. See the poems "Cambridge Elegy," "The Girl," "Saturn," "The Quest," "Boy Out in the World," and "The Green Shirt." But at times, I find the criticism I've so often heard directed toward Olds--that she falls back on the crutch of shock-value when she's at a poem's weak space--to be justified. For all its humor, I simply cannot believe "The Pope's Penis" to be a great poem. A good one? Sure. A memorable one? Certainly. But for the life of me, I don't get why people blab on and on about that poem (or why I read that for a Modern Poetry course a couple of years ago) when they can look to her other more astonishingly written, deeply felt poems.
Moreover, the wild cries of how groundbreaking her work's breaking of taboos is seem to me slightly misguided. She's certainly speaking of often-silenced topics, but she's not really the first. Had she published this book two decades earlier, she'd have broken that ground; but as it stands, see (I hate to bring them up again) Plath or Sexton on a number of these topics: father/daughter incest; sexual or emotional violence against women; female sexuality; abortion; eroticism; &co&co. She hasn't done it first, though I certainly appreciate that she carries the torch in many respects.
I don't know how this turned into a pitchfork & torch review of the book. I did like it and certainly look forward to reading more Olds. So bottom line is this: the book is stunning at its best points and dreary at its worst. Other poems just get lost in the shuffle between the good and the bad. I'll be curious to pick up other books & see if they are more consistent in quality than this one was. I tend to agree with another reviewer here on GR--the poems are too often boring on the page even if exciting when read aloud. But ultimately, "Cambridge Elegy" is worth the price of admission alone.
Identify Books Supposing The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series)
| Original Title: | The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series) |
| ISBN: | 0394747704 (ISBN13: 9780394747705) |
| Edition Language: |
Rating Containing Books The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series)
Ratings: 4.23 From 2315 Users | 101 ReviewsJudge Containing Books The Gold Cell (Knopf Poetry Series)
I think this is widely considered to be one of Sharon Olds' best poetry collections, but I wonder if that is in part because it seems to lend itself much more to academic analysis than some of her other collections. Even her book previous to The Gold Cell, "The Dead and The Living," seemed much more open and personal without ever seeming pedestrian. The Gold Cell, at times, is considerably more explicit and personal, particularly as she writes about sex and intimacy, but at the same time itAnthologies are great: It's impossible for every poem in a collection to be amazing, but an anthology is the best of the best, all of the important parts mapped out and easily accessible. But it's also good to wade through a collection on your own, in an order the poet originally intended, marking off your own discoveries of the good and the bad. "The Gold Cell" has a very intentional structure, each part with a common theme as it relates to Olds' life. There is a feeling of development, as we
Olds does a beautiful job falling between personal experience and generally relatable events. The Gold Cell is broken down into 4 different sections, each with its own personality. A personal favorite of mine is "I go back to May 1937." This poem intensifies a relationship of a girl looking at a photograph and her parents. She writes wishing they would have never gotten married, but quickly retracts with thanking her chance for life. Most of the book portrays a broken family and the resulting
I guess I'm on a poetry kick. I couldn't really decide how to rate this book because half of the poems are brilliant and half of them kinda suck. So I gave it 4 stars based on the really good ones. There are two specific poems that really stick out in my mind. One is about a young love that dies (literally) and the other is about her kids. Now that I am a mother the kids ones really affect me. I get it now.
There are always good poems in an Olds collection. There are always cringeworthy poems in an Olds collection. That much said, the books are usually worth owning. I love the one in here written to the pope's penis, and the one about the man with his half-formed brother growing out of his chest. The visceral--and horror stories from the news (addressed in a punchy style) seem to be her two favorite themes and are her strong suits. Focusing on the Freudian family is her default mode when the Furies
The first time I read this collection of poems, I was shocked out of my socks, and it felt good. The ways that family torments and saves - sometimes simultaneously - is a recurrent feature. Metaphors that strike home. Sometimes, you might feel after finishing one of her poems about family that your stomach has flipped inside-out and left you holding all the gross, gooey parts in your hands. Then, the moments of self-cleansing, self-clarification, and epiphany fall into place, and you're glad you
Sharon Old's writing is thematically very deep and raw, and the writing is beautiful while also being harsh. From a technical standpoint, being a writer myself, I like it very much. However, there are only so many poems that need to have sex included in the imagery. Quite frankly, my favorites are the ones that don't have it. (Basically, the entire third section of the book)If you are a fan of poetry, you should probably check this out as a great example of confessional poetry. If you are a
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