Sharon Olds
Kenyana Savage
Mrs. Love Hilliard
Creative Writing
30 September 2016
Last Night Love is sacred. The goosebumps painted on the skin are worthless without it. “Last Night”, written by Sharon Olds, is a perfect reflection of how being in love has a profound effect when in relation to intimacy. Olds compares her experience while being in love, to her experience when her feelings for her partner are neutral. Throughout this piece Olds conveys her message with the use of similes, repetition, imagery, and hyperbole. Olds included a variety of devices to convey her message, one way was through the use of similes. At the very beginning of the poem Stating, “I hardly knew myself, like something twisting and twisting out of a chrysalis”(Olds81), Olds compares her experience from not being familiar with her current emotions, to the exposure of the emotion, which she finds to be similar to the breaking of a chrysalis. This comparison puts a mass amount of emphasis onto her discovery of this part of herself, which allows the reader to be able to relate or create a sense of understanding of the emotions projected at this moment. Throughout the poem, repetition is also used to draw attention and add emphasis onto important references. Olds stated, “-like …show more content…
Olds paints a picture of the unpleasant situation compared to a more pleasant situation. “-genitals like violent hands clasped tight barely moving, more like being closed in a great jaw and eaten-”(Olds81), Olds paints an image of the moment being violent, harsh and painful, compared to her sense of imagery when discussing a more pleasurable moment, “-you kept me sealed exactly against you, our hairlines wet as the arc of a gateway after a cloudburst, you secured me in your arms till I slept-”(Olds81). Both lines provides a vivid example of how she interprets both moments, allowing the reader to be able to recognize the significant differences in each
Mrs. Love Hilliard
Creative Writing
30 September 2016
Last Night Love is sacred. The goosebumps painted on the skin are worthless without it. “Last Night”, written by Sharon Olds, is a perfect reflection of how being in love has a profound effect when in relation to intimacy. Olds compares her experience while being in love, to her experience when her feelings for her partner are neutral. Throughout this piece Olds conveys her message with the use of similes, repetition, imagery, and hyperbole. Olds included a variety of devices to convey her message, one way was through the use of similes. At the very beginning of the poem Stating, “I hardly knew myself, like something twisting and twisting out of a chrysalis”(Olds81), Olds compares her experience from not being familiar with her current emotions, to the exposure of the emotion, which she finds to be similar to the breaking of a chrysalis. This comparison puts a mass amount of emphasis onto her discovery of this part of herself, which allows the reader to be able to relate or create a sense of understanding of the emotions projected at this moment. Throughout the poem, repetition is also used to draw attention and add emphasis onto important references. Olds stated, “-like …show more content…
Olds paints a picture of the unpleasant situation compared to a more pleasant situation. “-genitals like violent hands clasped tight barely moving, more like being closed in a great jaw and eaten-”(Olds81), Olds paints an image of the moment being violent, harsh and painful, compared to her sense of imagery when discussing a more pleasurable moment, “-you kept me sealed exactly against you, our hairlines wet as the arc of a gateway after a cloudburst, you secured me in your arms till I slept-”(Olds81). Both lines provides a vivid example of how she interprets both moments, allowing the reader to be able to recognize the significant differences in each