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cathyc's review
I would not personally consider many of these poems as odes - a list of descriptions on a topic does not make an ode and many of these poems lacked anything beyond
casparb's review against another edition
actually I don't think it's very controversial that sharon olds is one of the best poets alive writing in English, and here she is, doing it. a sharon-binge is a worthwhile endeavour. every poem has the zing, it's a collection on the longer side & what I really admire here is this use of technical term, plenty words I did not know but did not harm the meaning nor felt like I was being patronised for not knowing.
So , Odes, in the contemporary. What are they doing. When a contemporary poet writes an ode, assuming they're not completely delusional & imagining we live in a wordsworthian cloud, they're doing it with some degree of irony. To write an ode is one of the most self-conscious things you can do as a poet, it's like the piece is there yelling Look at me! I"m a poem! typing 'ode' into the poetry foundation website, you find 'Ode to Gossips', 'Ode to the Tiniest Dessert Spoon in all Creation', 'Ode to the Electric Fish that Eat Only the Tails of Other Electric Fish,'. These are cool, I like these poems (first two a little more than the last, sorry.
With Olds, it's a little different, I think. Appropriately enough, we open with 'Ode to the Hymen', 'Ode to the Clitoris', 'Ode to the Penis', 'Ode to My Whiteness', 'Ode of Withered Cleavage', 'Ode to Menstrual Blood', 'Blow Job Ode', 'Merkin Ode'. It's flagrant, it's excitable, yes, abject is a term we think of pretty immediately. I don't know if I could even pin it down, it's so excitedly unselfconscious and yet obviously she knows exactly what she's doing. Post-earnestness
So , Odes, in the contemporary. What are they doing. When a contemporary poet writes an ode, assuming they're not completely delusional & imagining we live in a wordsworthian cloud, they're doing it with some degree of irony. To write an ode is one of the most self-conscious things you can do as a poet, it's like the piece is there yelling Look at me! I"m a poem! typing 'ode' into the poetry foundation website, you find 'Ode to Gossips', 'Ode to the Tiniest Dessert Spoon in all Creation', 'Ode to the Electric Fish that Eat Only the Tails of Other Electric Fish,'. These are cool, I like these poems (first two a little more than the last, sorry.
With Olds, it's a little different, I think. Appropriately enough, we open with 'Ode to the Hymen', 'Ode to the Clitoris', 'Ode to the Penis', 'Ode to My Whiteness', 'Ode of Withered Cleavage', 'Ode to Menstrual Blood', 'Blow Job Ode', 'Merkin Ode'. It's flagrant, it's excitable, yes, abject is a term we think of pretty immediately. I don't know if I could even pin it down, it's so excitedly unselfconscious and yet obviously she knows exactly what she's doing. Post-earnestness
heidihaverkamp's review against another edition
4.0
Sharon Olds can seem crude if you read her Table of Contents - a list of odes to various genitalia, tampons, douches, wattles, blow jobs, menstrual blood... but also her whiteness, sickness, a composting toilet? She's actually elegant and profound, with a few duds. I love how she can make language wrap itself around the body and show you something you'd never thought of but you think "true, true, true." She demystifies and makes sacred at the same time.
lgmaxwell722's review against another edition
2.0
I am glad I stuck with this book of poetry. There were some poems I liked, but it did sweep me in. I found a lot of the poems difficult to connect with.
toniclark's review against another edition
4.0
An unusual and ingenious book of odes — poems of praise and celebration — to a wide range of topics: the hymen, the clitoris, the penis, Stanley Kunitz, buttermilk, legs, wind, broken loyalty.
Lots of sex and death and queasy-making subjects. Many of these poems didn’t do it for me. Some struck me as over-the-top, exaggerated praise that just didn’t come off. And I did mutter, more than once, “Enough already about the nether regions!” But there are many poems here that I liked a lot — for their candor, inventiveness, and their intense and surprising language.
Olds has been called confessional. She’s been called exhibitionist. Her work has been called gynecological. Here, as usual, the poet is unsentimental, unapologetic, boundary-pushing, and proud of it.
My favorite in the collection is the beautiful and tender Stanley Kunitz Ode. I also greatly enjoyed the odes to wattles, fat, and stretch marks. The aging female body (“the thrilling unloveliness of an elderwoman’s aging”) here becomes a subject of interest, appreciation, reverence, and sometimes downright revelry. There is a lot of good humor in these pages.
“ . . . and now the earth
provides, on my body, more and more signs:
No Fishing. No Eggs. Out of Milk.”
— from “Merkin Ode”
Lots of sex and death and queasy-making subjects. Many of these poems didn’t do it for me. Some struck me as over-the-top, exaggerated praise that just didn’t come off. And I did mutter, more than once, “Enough already about the nether regions!” But there are many poems here that I liked a lot — for their candor, inventiveness, and their intense and surprising language.
Olds has been called confessional. She’s been called exhibitionist. Her work has been called gynecological. Here, as usual, the poet is unsentimental, unapologetic, boundary-pushing, and proud of it.
My favorite in the collection is the beautiful and tender Stanley Kunitz Ode. I also greatly enjoyed the odes to wattles, fat, and stretch marks. The aging female body (“the thrilling unloveliness of an elderwoman’s aging”) here becomes a subject of interest, appreciation, reverence, and sometimes downright revelry. There is a lot of good humor in these pages.
“ . . . and now the earth
provides, on my body, more and more signs:
No Fishing. No Eggs. Out of Milk.”
— from “Merkin Ode”
neonpeg's review against another edition
5.0
I'm going to be re-reading this book and these poems forever
lillianglippold's review against another edition
3.0
This book of poems was wonderfully mediocre.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled with fantastic poetry in poetry books past, but everything about this book was underwhelming. It took me MUCH too long to read because I lost motivation for it on multiple accounts. I found myself just skimming pages because there felt to be nothing of substance on them. Maybe that is harsh to say, but I felt that an author who won a Pulitzer Prize would have something more spectacular for reading material.
There were a few poems I enjoyed and a few lines I highlighted because of their genius. However, as a whole, the book felt very one note and very dated. It all felt like poems I’ve read before. Overall, not worth the read. I’m glad I finished it out, but also not entirely glad I picked it up in the first place.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled with fantastic poetry in poetry books past, but everything about this book was underwhelming. It took me MUCH too long to read because I lost motivation for it on multiple accounts. I found myself just skimming pages because there felt to be nothing of substance on them. Maybe that is harsh to say, but I felt that an author who won a Pulitzer Prize would have something more spectacular for reading material.
There were a few poems I enjoyed and a few lines I highlighted because of their genius. However, as a whole, the book felt very one note and very dated. It all felt like poems I’ve read before. Overall, not worth the read. I’m glad I finished it out, but also not entirely glad I picked it up in the first place.
foggy_rosamund's review against another edition
4.0
Varied collection of moving, joyous and sensual poetry. I really enjoy Olds' celebration of her own aging body, and the joy she finds in her mortality and physical being. I also love her accounts of sexuality and romantic intimacy -- she finds new and profound angles to much-written about subjects.