Sharon Olds Sex Without Love Analysis

Rejecting Repentance Everyone has a past. Some people embrace their mistakes while others crumble and hide behind theirs. While someone’s past might affect their future, it will not determine the person they are. There is no age, height, gender, or race requirements for error, but a variety of religions, especially Christianity, emphasize this standard. In the poem “Sex without Love” by Sharon olds, the concept of religion is used to constantly remind the audience of the speaker’s attitude about sex before marriage. Although the religious speaker in this poem is confused and insulted by the actions of fornicator’s, she utilizes the bible as a sarcastic tool instead of judgmental. The tone of the poem makes it more relatable to the audience. Just like the speaker, people are often confused by others actions and that make them afraid and sometimes insulted by them. She stated, “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?”(Olds 233). This question was not as much literal as it is metaphorical. Some people believe life imitates art and others believe art imitates life, but in this instance life is not imitating art as much as it is disrespecting

She exclaims, “Beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice-skaters over the ice,” (Olds 233). Not only does this description paint a rose-tinted picture in the audience’s head it compares two things that should not be alike but they are. It would have been fairly easy for the speaker to depict fornicators as detestable and horrid people, but instead she leaves room for the audience to make their own decisions about them. They are similar to beautiful things but never established as beautiful themselves. Since the speaker voices her opinion through religion this line could certainly reflect how the devil is described as the enemy who prowls around like a roaring lion. The devil is not a lion but he falsely imitates