New Mother by Adam Sprung

I chose the poem New Mother by Sharon Olds for a couple of different reasons. First, the poem is extremely contemporary and that is something that appeals to me. I like how it is very free flowing, and not direct to the point. When reading this poem and had to look it over a couple of times. The first time, i did not quite understand where she was headed, and that is something else that enjoyed about the poem. It made me think.

The poem starts off by saying that this couple just had a baby, something very joyous and happy. However, as you read the poem, you get this lurking sense of misery and despair, all the way until the very last line "until it can run again".

Throughout the poem she brings up the idea of sex, and combines that with imagines of a new mother. However, i think the "stitches" and the wounds and cuts referes to something more than just what may have come from her child labor. I beleive that she is feeling a lack of a connection to her child now that it is no longer inside of her. She is longing to feel that connection again, but realizes that it will take time to heal. I think that its her motherly insticts that she is talking about. She wants to nurture this child, but is having a hard time doing it for some reason. Maybe she was not ready to have a child. Maybe, she just is nervous about the future. I get this from the line "and the first time you’re broken, you don’t know you’ll be healed again, better than before. I lay in fear and blood and milk"

Towards the end of the poem, there is a reference to this other person giving tender care, and having patience, and tending to her as if she were a "wounded animal in the woods". I think this is quite interesting. It really gives the impression that she is hopeless, cant help herself. This bothers me. I'm not sure why, it just does. I just feel like one week after a child is born, there should much more happiness than pain.