Resumo de Abstract Of Sex Without Love

Sex without Love, by Sharon Olds, is a poem that was written in 1984 about her understanding of Sex without love. The poem is ironic in that, at its first glance, she admires those who can have sex without love, but then brings in all sorts of elements that are disgusting and vile, and are all related to the idea of sex without love. She mentions ice skaters, an image of faces as red as steak and wine, wet as the children at birth, great runners, and other things that, at first glance seem glamourous, but at the second glance it is obvious that these are things that can not be compared in the same way with the same glory.
The first thing she calls those who can have sex without Love is in line 2, ?beautiful as dancers, gliding over each other like ice skaters?(l 2-3), indicating that it is something of beauty. However, ice skaters dance as a performance, and as a result their beauty and happiness is all falsified, so as to give the audience members something to clap at. Ice is used because of the fact that it is cold; sex without love is cold and impersonal. Ice skaters also dance upon the ice with sharp blades on the soles of their feet, and when looked into, an ice skating dancer is not something beautiful and lovely.
The images of steak and wine are of romance, and usually tie in with candle light and dinners for two. However, a face red as steak or wine is not something of beauty, it is something disgusting, vile and disease-like. Sex without love can not be compared to a steak and wine, as they are only physical objects, and sex should not be solely physical.
An image of a child is always one of some form of joy and love. However, the face of a child that is being abandoned at birth is an image of cold abandonment. This abandoned baby can be caused by sex without love, as sexual acts are meant to happen between two people who love each other, in the same way a baby should be loved by its mother and father. Sex without love, therefore, can not be compared beautifully to a child after childbirth.
A great runner is something that is to be admired and looked upon as great. Someone who takes care of himself or herself physically is something or grandeur. However, they are running alone, and run solely for the physical benefits, not for any spiritual reasons. In fact, it is rather cold to think of sex as nothing more then a physical act.
In fact, Sharon Olds point is that sex must be more then a physical act. It must be two people bound as one, understanding all responsibilities that come with sex, and it can not be truly without love. These images are evidence that there is no way to describe it while keeping a love like tone to the act.
I chose to use the images presented in this poem to analyze it. The reason I used that form of analysis was the fact that the poem used imagery to fully make its case. The imagery presented is what makes the poem understandable and persuasive, as without it there would be no way to make the reader realize what he considers beauty.
In Sex without Love, Sharon Olds presents her view of what sex without love must be like. She gives us examples to compare it to: ice skaters, dancing away from each other on cold ice; children, being abandoned at birth; faces and people being meat instead of a person. In this method, Sharon Olds reveals to the reader what sex without love truly is: a physcial desecration on a holy act.

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