Strengths and weaknesses of four summaries of "The possessive" by Olds

Poem no 1

The summary is short, precise and straight to the point. This summary makes it easy for the reader to relate and identify the theme of the poem. However, the poem summary has poor structure; i.e., it does not establish the context perhaps to identify imagery of the poetry. Additionally, the author failed to recognize the genre of the poetry, thus makes it difficult to categorize the poem.

Poem no 2

The summary of the history of the author provides a quick insight into the context that the poem is build upon as well as imagery picture in the poem. Furthermore, the summary has identified the genre of poetry by establishing the number of lines. Arguably the review is well broken down, and most of the stylistic devices such as imagery and figurative language has been explained. However, this summary lacks the structural flow thus deny the reader the specific inspirational knowledge about the poem.

Poem no 3

In this poem, the author has structured it in the form that is simple and understandable. This makes it easy for any reader to bring out the picture of the theme and literary meanings. Weakness in this summary is a poor use of the meter and identifying the type of the poem. No symbolism or any other stylistic devices has been employed. The author has failed to gather evidence from the poem to support his/her ideas and arguments.

Poem no 4

The author of this summary has identified the genre by naming the number of lines in the whole poem. The author has to present out the theme of the poem by explaining their meanings in the different stanza. Furthermore, literally and stylistic methods have been well discussed. This summary does not have an identifiable pattern hence losing the flow and structure.

Regarded as “Possessive,” Sharon Olds is arguably most liked and admired American poet. She was born in 1942 in San Francisco and spent most of her life in New York City. However, like many of her genres, there are far more incidents within the poem itself than first appears.”Possessive” was first published in mid-1980’, having a composition of 20 lines, six stanzas, no rhymes, and a different number of syllables. This poem exhibits architectural excellence, animosity, periodic, and sturdy aspects. The central imagery of the poem is sequences of “possessiveness” that has been curved down and blamed on the deteriorating relationship between the mother and her daughter. Despite the poet showing sympathy on how painful she had nature her inside her womb, she chooses to regret. For example in the first three lines, she compares her daughter hair to “as a frayed bull."

Additionally, in lines, 4-5 Olds conjures up terrible imagery of a barber brutally attacks the daughter's hair. This imagery symbolism shows how the barber sharpens his daughter hair in readiness to be used as a weapon in a raging war between the mother and the daughter. This rebellion can be related to mother-daughter love detachment to emphasize on the horrifying images experiences by Sharon Olds.