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debi_g's review against another edition
3.0
I’ve never found a chapbook wherein ALL of the poems are intimate, compelling, and filled with truth. Sharon Olds is superb, but at her best when confessional and bare.
qingyigeshu's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
An accessible but also stunningly lyrical poet. Olds had a “poet’s voice” but usually doesn’t let that intrude on the poem’s “wholeness”, if that makes sense. She writes beautifully because the subject is beautiful, is beauty.
kiramke's review against another edition
3.0
Honest and accessible. I enjoyed the focus on the 'ordinary' and the introspection. It's still not my favorite style and characteristically I most enjoyed a few lines that tie the 'political' to the very personal.
jason461's review against another edition
2.0
A few good moments. Mostly repetitive, self-absorbed, and dull.
abetterjulie's review against another edition
5.0
Masterful, powerful, and something I've never seen in poetry before.
I made the "mistake" of reading Stag's Leap first. That meant I came to this volume knowing what was to come for the narrator, and that meant a lot of tears. The ache these poems leave in my heart makes me want to keep reading them until it heals.
I made the "mistake" of reading Stag's Leap first. That meant I came to this volume knowing what was to come for the narrator, and that meant a lot of tears. The ache these poems leave in my heart makes me want to keep reading them until it heals.
eely225's review against another edition
4.0
The advantage with Olds' poetry is that it invites a second reading, but she doesn't hide her meanings obtusely on first reading. Meaning that revisitation is exciting because you know there's more to find, not because you're lost and confused.