"The Victims" by Sharon Olds

Sharon Olds was born on November 19, 1942 in San Francisco. She has won many prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize in 2013.

When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we
grinned inside, the way people grinned when
Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South
Lawn for the last time. We were tickled
to think of your office taken away,
your secretaries taken away,
your lunches with three double bourbons,
your pencils, your reams of paper. Would they take your
suits back, too, those dark
carcasses hung in your closet, and the black
noses of your shoes with their large pores?
She had taught us to take it, to hate you and take it
until we pricked with her for your
annihilation, Father. Now I
pass the bums in doorways, the white
slugs of their bodies gleaming through slits in their
suits of compressed silt, the stained
flippers of their hands, the underwater
fire of their eyes, ships gone down with the
lanterns lit, and I wonder who took it and
took it from them in silence until they had
given it all away and had nothing
left but this.

"The Victims" by Sharon Olds is talking about a bad divorce (where the dad was a bad person) from the child's point of view a few years later. While looking back, the speaker reflects on the moment the mother kicked out her father and how all the kids were happy about it. They found happiness in the father's misery, which makes the audience believe that he was not a good person. She gets a little carried away with listing all the things the father lost, but she is finally coming to the conclusion that he got what he deserved. More than half way down, the speaker refers to her dad by calling him "Father" instead of "you". She starts thinking of all the "bums" she sees and how they were probably in the same situation as her dad. She can relate to how they got to where they are now, unlike most of us who just look at the people on the street and judge them. The audience and speaker's thoughts change from thinking the mother and children were the victims to maybe the father being the victim. This is especially relevant when the speaker reveals that her mother had "taught" her children to hate him and resent him.

There is alliteration, sibilance, and enjambment in "The Victims". All these tools add to the reader's understanding of the poem. It puts emphasis on certain parts of the poem, and it adds more rhythm to the poem as a whole. Especially in the part where she starts talking about the bums, all the "s's" catch our attention. We are able to realize her change of opinion.

"Marks" by Linda Pastan

Linda Pastan was born on May 27, 1932 in New York City. She is an American poet of Jewish background.


My husband gives me an A
for last night's supper,
an incomplete for my ironing,
a B plus in bed.
My son says I am average,
an average mother, but if
I put my mind to it
I could improve.
My daughter believes
in Pass/Fail and tells me
I pass. Wait 'til they learn
I'm dropping out.


The speaker is showing the audience how her family grades her on her motherly and wifely duties. The poem, as a whole, is an extended metaphor for how the speaker is judged. It is very clear that she is not pleased with the way she is always being critiqued by her family, just like anyone else would. The fact that she is using the metaphor of grades suggests her irritation further. There is no emotion in the speaker's words, which shows that she is so tired of serving others with no appreciation. The speaker also talks about three different grading systems that are used in schools. She uses language from school all the way till the end. She ends up giving into the metaphor that irritates her so much. Since her family treats her like a student, she can have the student's rights. She will be leaving the family or "dropping out".

"Marks" is a one stanza, free verse poem. There is no rhyme scheme, but there is enjambment in a few lines. Linda Pastan uses enjambment in this poem to add some rhythm and to also help the readers continue thinking about the idea talked about in the previous line.

The extended metaphor is comparing life to school. In this poem specifically, life as a housewife, but we are always being judged, in everything we do. At any job our boss is constantly looking out and "grading" us. In our everyday actions people are always watching and judging us. If we were kind to someone we get an A, but if we were rude we could Fail. Not only are other people watching, but God as well. He is the almighty judge who gives us the grades that matter.

"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams lived in the years 1883 to 1963. He is said to have been one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement.

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

"This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams is a poem with no true meaning. Williams warns us of this in the title; he is writing it just because. The speaker in this poem is most likely talking to his roommate, telling him about the unforeseen tragedy that he ate his plums. Throughout the entire poem there is a lot of sarcasm. From the beginning, when he starts out dramatically by saying he "eaten the plums" to the last stanza with his immensely sincere apology, the audience is able to detect his sarcasm.

There is no strict form or meter in "This Is Just to Say. There is no punctuation either. Each line is very short, made up of three words at most. Even with all that, we automatically pause at the end of some lines which give the poem a "dramatic" effect. The setting of this poem is most likely in a kitchen. The poem could almost be a letter put on the refrigerator to let the other person know the speaker had eaten the plums.

Even though there is no rhyme or rhythm in this poem, there is still a reason Williams wrote it and why it is considered poetry. It gives an example of a everyday experience that anyone could say. It reminds the audience that a mundane experience can be seen in another way, and it can be worthy of poetry.

Two unique aspects of poetry in "This Is Just to Say" are enjambment and sibilance. Enjambment is when the lines of poetry run together, which is clearly seen in all of the lines of this poem. Sibilance is the use of words with a hissing sound or the use of the letter "s". There is a great deal of sibilance in the title alone, not to mention the poem as a whole. It gives the poem a unique and subtle effect while also slowing it down.

"Barbie Doll" by Marge Piercy

Marge Piercy was born on March 31, 1936 in Detroit. :) Piercy says that her mother was the reason she became a poet. She "doesn't understand writers who complain about writing, not because it is easy for her but because it is so absorbing that she can imagine nothing more consuming and exciting at which to labor."
http://margepiercy.com/about-marge/biography/

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs. 

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs. 

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up. 

In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending. 

"Barbie Doll" is a well-structured, four stanza poem. Marge Piercy is showing her strong feminist opinions through the girl in the poem. 

The poem starts out like any other story from a young girl's childhood. She has dolls and lipstick. Everything seems great until she hits puberty. In a typical girl's world, puberty starts at thirteen and that is when everything changes. Instead of being friends with everyone in your class, the girls are judged by their looks, and their faults are now pointed out. Then the speaker goes on to say that even though the girl was smart, kind, and in every way normal, just because she had a big nose and fat legs she was looked down upon. Soon, all the pressures got to her and she got a new nose and new legs legs. Even then, the girl was not happy until her death. All the people who judged her for her looks when she was alive finally said she looked pretty in her casket. She finally looked beautiful, when she did not even look like herself with all the makeup the undertaker put on her. 

The tone Piercy uses is very sarcastic and sympathetic. She wants her readers to understand that these kind of opinions about young women are not okay. Every girl is beautiful and should not be judged just because they do not look absolutely perfect, because let's be honest, who does? 

There is no rhyme or meter in this poem. In the seventies people wanted to be free; some think that is why Piercy chose to write in free verse. Also, she is talking about how girls should not be constricted to the "norm" of being beautiful, so that's why she did not want a strict form. There is also a lot of enjambment, where lines run on into the next. She also made the poem more like a story so that her audience would not get distracted by the rhymes and structure, but be more focused on the important lesson of the poem.