The Wellspring

The Wellspring, by Sharon Olds, takes readers through the journey of life. There is one speaker throughout the entire collection which seems to be of an autobiographical nature, giving readers a more intimate look into the speaker’s life. The collection of poems is divided into four parts. The first section of poems, take us from the speaker being inside her mother’s womb; and then forward to the speaker’s birth and childhood. The second part contains poems about adolescence and early adult life. Here we see the speaker’s first encounters with sexuality and love. The third part continues the speaker’s life with the birth of her two children and her experiences with being a mother. Finally, the fourth part completes the journey with experiences dealing with growing older, the death of parents, and true love between partners.
The language of the poems is simplistic. The speaker describes different experiences and her feelings during the specific situation. In some of the later poems, the speaker references to experiences in earlier poems which I found interesting. This helps to give a more intimate setting between the speaker and reader. It's the feeling you get when you say something simple like "cucumber" to your best friend. She starts laughing hysterically while everyone else is confused as to what happened. The speaker also leaves out some information about her life. She implies about other experiences in her life but simply glides over it. As a reader, I felt I knew everything about her; yet, I wanted to know more.
Most of the poems are a page or less, but there are a few that go on for two pages. The poems are not specifically end-stopped or harshly enjambed. The poems do not contain a rhyming scheme or meter pattern. There is some interesting imagery and the poems are straightforward for the most part. The tone of the poems is very reminiscent. It is obvious that the speaker is looking back at her life experiences from an older age. Although there are poems about the very beginning of the speakers life, the collection does not come full circle; there are no poems about the speaker's death. However, death is discussed when the speaker's father dies, as well as, the death of her husband's father. I liked that the author didn't include the speaker's death in the collection of poems. It made me feel that the speaker was really Sharon Olds. I think including such poems would take away from the intimacy and closeness of the collection between the reader and speaker.
Overall, I really enjoyed reading The Wellspring. I could relate to an number of the poems and I am positive that other readers could find at least a few that they could relate to as well. The collection is simply about life experiences and the irrationality, beauty, and complications of being human.