Poem Analysis Of Poems By Sharon Olds

In society, there is and always has been complications between Caucasians and African-Americans. In this poem, Sharon Olds explores this relationship using imagery, repetition, and multiple tone shifts. In the beginning of the poem, the author introduces a situation that contrasts a white person with a black. Correspondingly, she applies imagery to emphasize this difference greatly. For example, the shoes he is wearing at the time are black “laced with white” and compares them to “intentional scars.” These scars correlate to to the discrimination against blacks by whites in society, conveying that whites purposely discriminate against blacks. The image is portraying that whites are more powerful than blacks. Additionally, she describes the