Odes

I love Sharon Olds. This book has less of a narrative theme than her other books of poetry. It praises, in her incomparable way, the everyday items that make up our lives. You might think writing about menstruation or birth control would be boring or even distasteful, but Olds is always minutely descriptive and shockingly enthusiastic. Even when some of these poems seem less polished, there are so many original odes that you will find much to admire here. And it is on the verge of daring--like so much of her poetry.

This is a nice collection. S Olds poetry is always enjoyable and easy to understand.

Each entry is so beautifully crafted. Poetry at its finest.

I can't really describe how much I love the way that Sharon Olds writes her odes but this book is worth buying.

Interesting but too intellectual!

Totally over the top poet. She includes the most personal details (!).

Very clever poet with great sense of humor ...a real "women's" poet!!

Olds never disappoints and Odes is one of her finest books!

Lovely and inspiring collection of poems for women at any stage of life.

Gave this as a gift to someone who requested it....she loved the quirkiness of it...all that she thought it would be.

Excellent book! Sharon Olds is a treat to read.

The woman I bought this for turned out to be a little weird. Probably shouldn't blame the book though ,right.

Sharon Olds is a fantastic poet and I’ve known it for several years. However, this particular collection of poems is one of her best. Since this is such a recent publication, there really aren’t a lot of reviews on it for comparison, though the ones that are on the site are very positive. In a video from 2006, Sharon Olds is reading “Ode to a Composting Toilet” (included in this collection) and she mentions her obsession with the ode form. Because of this, you could consider this entire book her Ode to odes. Olds humor and wiring style shines through in this particular collection. First, with “Ode to a Composting Toilet”, which is a personal favorite of mine, Olds has taken a topic that is somewhat weird and disgusting to consider and made it a humorous look at how everyone is the same and excretes the same. Olds starts this collection off with her “Ode to the Hymen,” which sets up the rest of collection for what’s to come. As with “Ode to a Composting Toilet,” Olds is discussing something that wouldn’t normally be discussed by people. But, by choosing to discuss it here, Olds is trying to normalize these topics because people shouldn’t be upset about discussing things that are fairly normal.