The Planned Child

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The way a child was conceived isn’t normally a thought anyone would focus on. No one expects that a child would be upset about how they were created. But in the poem “The Planned Child” by Sharon Olds that is exactly what happens. In this the poem, the reader gets to experience the thoughts of a woman who is upset that she wasn’t conceived in a more romantic way. The speaker’s identity is never revealed so the speaker could be the author or just any young woman. The reader gets to witness the woman’s emotion change from disapproval and disappointment to acceptance and understanding. Sharon Olds show the reader how the speaker can celebrate her conception with unique imagery and an adapting tone.
In the poem, a young woman is explaining how …show more content…

This is shown through the tone changing from being disappointed and critical to acceptance and appreciative. The speaker’s friend, who after listening to the speaker’s complaints, says that it seems like she was “a child who had been wanted” (line 12). This statement resonates with the speaker and slowly begins to change her thinking. This is apparent from the following line where the speaker states that “I took the wine against my lips as if my mouth were moving along that valved wall in my mother's body” (line 13 to line 15). The speaker is imagining her mother’s experience while creating her and giving birth to her. In the next several lines the speakers describe what she sees. She expresses that she can see her mother as “she was bearing down, and then breathing from the mask, and then bearing down, pressing me out into the world” (line 15 to line 18). The speaker can finally understand that to her mother the world and life she currently lived weren't enough for her. The imagery in the final lines of this poem list all the things that weren’t enough for the mother. They express that “the moon, the sun, Orion cartwheeling across the dark, not the earth, the sea” (line 19 to 21) none of those things matter to the mother. The only thing that matter was giving birth and having her child. Only then will she be satisfied with her life and

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