On The Subway

A detailed Summary of On The Subway


The poem that I have chosen to write and analyze is "On The Subway" by Sharon Olds. It was written in 1987 and is in one of Olds three books that she has had published called "The Gold Cell." The other books that Olds has written are "Satan Days"(1980) and "The Dead and the Living"(1983). Olds, who was born in San Francisco, has won a National Book Critics Circle Award for her poetry. The poem is about the speaker of the poem in a subway car sitting across from a boy that frightens her a little bit. She does not know the boy and is a little leery about who he is and what he could do to her. This is a good poem about everyday life in the real life that could happen to anybody and contains many questions that many people ask their-selves everyday.

I chose this poem because I liked the way that it was similar to everyday life in the real world. There is the speaker of the poem who is on a subway in the city and is a frightened by the appearance of another boy on the subway with her. In this entry it does not specifically state how the speaker is and wether it was a incident that happened to the poet. The speaker talks about


Henderson, Gloria Mason, Bill Day, and Sandra Stevenson Waller. Literature and Ourselves. 2nd ed., 1997. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishers.

In the end of the story Old's concludes by talking about how her life could be taken away and she talks about her white skin again. She mentions the boy "...at birth was dark and fluid and rich as the heart of a seedling ready to thrust up into any available light"(32-34). I think that she means that this young black boy could do anything to her to add some life to his life, and by doing that would ruin her life. I think that she should never had judged this boy, because she does not know him.

She also mentions the color of their skin and how it could play a role. The speaker being a white women and the boy being black. This poem is only told from one point of view, which

In the middle of the poem, the speaker questions who has the power between her and the boy in the subway. She says "...I don't know if I am in his power-......or if he is in my power"(14-18). She is saying that she is getting all worried about this boy that is in the subway with her, but she does not even know him or he does not know her. For all she knows he is the nicest young man alive. When she questions who has the power b

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cross English, Circle Award, Sharon Olds, , Gold Cell, Literature Ourselves, boy subway, San Francisco, Living1983 Olds, 22 1999 essay, Addison-Wesley Publishers, september 22 1999, John Cross, cross english 102-03, speaker poem, everyday life, essay 1, life real, poem speaker, 1999 essay, 102-03 september 22, john cross, cross english, english 102-03 september, september 22,

Approximate Word count = 853
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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