The Wellspring: Poems

by Sharon Olds

Book Overview

Sharon Olds's dazzling new collection is a sequence of poems that reaches into the very wellspring of life. The poems take us back to the womb, and from there on to childhood, to a searing sexual... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679765603
• ISBN13: 9780679765608
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Honesty, Integrity, Poetry

Sharon Olds work is always well-crafted and honest. Shocking to some, perhaps. (Evidently it does disturb Catherine Ross, whose anti Sharon Olds crusade from April of this year is so transparent--each of her neg reviews written in the same voice, though supposedly penned by different reviewers.) As a man, I have always had a great respect for Olds' writing, her views into the world and her ability to somehow transform pain from the past into something greater and more life-affirming. You will love this book, unless you are profoundly prudish.

The Wellspring, by Sharon Olds

The people who wrote the incredibly off negative reviews of this book do not understand contemporary poetry. If you don't like this book because of its real world language and content, which is only a small part of the book, by the way, you are a prude or a snob. Sharon Olds rocks--she is brave and honest and writes what is real. We don't live in Victorian England or the Middle Ages anymore, do we? These poems are beautifully written and are about life--love, kids, hate, childhood, everything. Thank God poetry does not have to only be about flowers and birds and oh how lovely everything is.

The most honest poet alive.

This is the most straightforward, urgent, honest poetry I have ever read. Not for fans of pretentious flowery language, for the squeamish, or for simpletons who don't see that there is beauty in complexity. I have yet to find another poet who can write with the clarity of Sharon Olds.

Absolutely awesome!!

When it comes to poetry I read with a very skeptical eye. But, the more I read in this volume the more I slowed down to savor it. The sweep and power of these poems is unmistakable. In a world where knowing the right person can place a wanna-be's book next to Shakespeare's, it's nice to find the work of a fine craftsperson such as Sharon Olds. Her observations of her family and her candidness regarding sensuality make this book all the more special and important. Great reading.

In her language, her voice, there is a naked view of thesoul

I first came across Sharon Olds' poetry in a volume of the Best American Poetry edited by David Lehman. The poem, True Love, which ends the hardcover edition of Wellspring is a beautiful love song I first found there. That poem in no way prepared me for the depth and range of feeling found in Wellspring or the frank approach to the intimacy of family and life. She leads subtly to the deepest of emotions, exposing the rawness of life and it's wildest beauty. Riveted would be an apt description of reading this book. There is an invitation to invasion of privacy, which once taken leads the reader, first as witness and finally as partner, to a celebration of living........ Chester Morrison 3/27/97