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Both the e.e. Cummings poem, She Being Brand and Sharon Olds poem Sex Without Love address the act of love-making. However, although both use humor , rhythm, and metaphor, Cummings is less explicit.
His poem, perhaps reflecting a certain sexual modesty still prevailing in society in his decade, can be read as a straightforward love affair with a car or other motorized vehicle, rather than a metaphor for an encounter with a human woman.
More importantly, perhaps, Cummings celebrates the mutuality of the act, while Olds implies a critique of those who engage in sex purely for pleasure rather than to build a relationship.
Each poet employs a variety of techniques to evoke the act of sex. For example, Olds echoes the rhythm of approaching climax in the repetition of a phrase containing a word often used to describe that climax. Olds asks, How do they come to the/come to the come to the/ God come to the/still waters& (Olds, lines 8-10).
This three word phrase, reiterated four times, humorously reproduces the way that people under these circumstances lose the capacity to finish a sentence or a thought. They often also call on the deity at this moment.
Similarly, e.e. Cummings describes the same critical moment in an episode of intimacy as follows: I slammed on/the/internalexpanding/&/externalcontracting/ breaks Bothatonce and/ brought allofher tremB/-ling/to a:dead./stand-/Still) (Cummings, lines 28-38).
In these lines, Cummings creates a rhythm with the shoved together words describing the brakes, or breaks (Cummings, line 33). These phrases are a sly reference to the conjoined anatomy of the male and female bodies.
The shoving together of these words reminds the reader of the breathless quality of intercourse. The repetition of these shoved together words, with pauses between them, suggests the cyclical increases in intensity that intimacy often includes.
However, this use of words can also be read as the chuff-chuff of any internal combustion engine. In this respect, e.e. cummings spares his readers all embarrassment or discomfort. This use of concealing metaphor allows his readers to appreciate his poem on whatever level they feel comfortable reaching. Olds, on the other hand, comes right out and states her purpose in the title.
The secondary image to which uncommitted sex partners are compared; namely, that of joggers out to test their ability against the road, is given seven lines; or roughly a third of the poem. Her explicitness forces readers to frankly contemplate what has been lost in the era of hook-ups.
In this aspect, the poem differs most strikingly from cummings. Cummings is sharing an experience; a specific relationship with one woman, perhaps, even though his description of it is metaphorical. Olds, on the other hand, is asking a question and in the process, asserting an opinion regarding loveless sex.
She is gently derisive of this pattern of behavior. However, she gives those of whom she disapproves credit for being accomplished at what they do, calling them, beautiful as dancers,/gliding over each other like ice-skaters (Olds, lines 2-3).
Thus, the two poets seem to be trying to accomplish two very different goals. Cummings goal is describe a time and a place and an interaction. He does so with subversive references to automobile operation.
Olds, however, is offering her view of a current pattern of male-female intersection, and it is not an entirely approving view&She too, uses multiple poetic devices to compare the selfishness of serial hook-ups. Both poems are most effective.
Works Cited
Cummings, e. e. She Being Brand. The Compact Bedford Introduction to literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. Print.
Olds, Sharon. SexWithout Love. The Compact Bedford Introduction to literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 8th. Boston and New York: Bedfords/St. Martins, 2008. Print.
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