Love is an incredibly complex feeling that is often conveyed emotionally in poems. Sex is a natural continuation of sincere and pure love, a harbinger of family and children. However, when lovemaking occurs without the emotional support of this feeling, an influx of conflicting emotions is created. Authors often try to convey such emotions metaphorically, through comparisons, in poetic form. This essay examines two poems by Ackerman’s “A Fine, a Private Place” and Olds’ “Sex Without Love.” The central thesis of this work is that Olds shows sex without love as a beautiful wrapper, devoid of meaning, truth, and any warm emotions, while Ackerman, on the contrary, demonstrates the positive feelings caused by sex without love in the context of a long relationship.
Sharon Olds is more specific and concise in her poem Sex Without Love. Her work is not devoid of metaphors, but the whole process is described as a path to mystery, to God, and one question is asked about how one can not love a person who has come this way (line 12). This poem has a religious connotation of lovemaking with something intimate (line 9). The rhythm of this action is transmitted only once with the help of the repetition of “come to the” as if emphasizing the climax in the poem (line 9). It turns out that according to Olds, everyone can do this path, but the truth lies only in love, which is shown as “single body alone in the universe against its own best time” (line 23-24). The process may seem beautiful from the outside; lovers may be “beautiful as dancers” (line 2). However, what matters is what is inside each person at this moment. Paradoxically, the truth is called “single body,” but it is possible to come to it only through the mutual love of two people. In fact, in this way, the author probably shows the unity of two souls, which are held together in genuine, sincere love and no longer leave any questions and do not need comparisons like those that Olds lists at the beginning of the poem.
Diane Ackerman writes a longer poem about love, which is reflected in global, like the scale of feelings experienced, natural processes. Like Olds, who compares love to clear water and light, Ackerman uses “ocean,” “horizon,” and “sky” as allegories (line 2, 102). The religious theme is seen here only through one metaphor of eating the forbidden fruit, which Ackerman calls “voluptuous peach” (line 104). Otherwise, the process of love is metaphorically described, the desire to repeat it and thoughts that get confused and return to the cherished moment. However, the question “who was this she loved,” posed in a vivid narrative process, shows that this is a random act but not devoid of love (line 50). The man takes the girl to a safe place, where the girl can remain relaxed, relaxed a little early, and defenseless. Diane Ackerman shows that sex and love are interconnected on more complex levels than in the sequential relationship of one flowing out of the other. The fire of love can light up only for moments of the act and remain warm memories, as in this poem. This love is not painful; it will not interfere with the heroes’ future lives and meeting new partners. Olds shows a more negative attitude towards sex without love, while Ackerman shows how fleeting pleasure can be perceived positively.
Works Cited
Ackerman, Diane. A Fine, a Private Place. Kenyon Review, 1980, 11-14.
Olds, Sharon. Sex without love. The Iowa Review, vol. 12, no. 2, 1981, pp. 264-264.