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| "...gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice..." |
Sharon Olds's poem speaks on casual sex, or as the title states, "sex without love", a topic very significant in today's age of clubs, prostitution, and more widespread and open sexual activity than most other eras have experienced. The form of the poem reflects the act of sex itself, beginning with long, elegant, gently flowing lines like "beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice". It then moves on to bolder and fiercer lines, with phrases like "fingers hooked inside each other's bodies," and "faces red as steak". Finally, the poem nears a climax of sorts, a hitched-breath repetition of "come to the" like the strained gasps and cries of frantic lovers. Only after this does the poem seem to calm down enough to really wonder about the nature of sex, love, and those who have sex both with and without love.
As a former cross-country runner, I recognize the relationship the speaker describes between the runner and her or his environment, "alone with the road surface, the cold, the wind, the fit of their shoes, their over-all cardiovascular health". These may be "just factors", simple concrete facts about the world around them, but they do in fact build up to a total experience. After all, aren't all of the experiences we go through a compilation of tiny details we note about our environment? In this case the lovers may lack the emotional bond of love, but at least the experience can create a feeling and an emotional response in them, and that feeling may be just what these people are looking for.
Works Cited:
Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. Norton Introduction to Literature. 10th ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2011. Print.
“Six Sensual Tips For Sensational Sex.” The100%You.com. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
Its difficult for me to think that a sexual relationship can go far without emotional responses. I think sex is both physical and emotional; so people really do themselves a disservice when they get involved with each other without emotions. I did wonder why the poem broke up in its lines like that. Your explanation made a lot of sense.
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