Examining a poem in detail can bring out new meanings and ideas. Through careful analysis, the true meaning of a poem can be revealed. Sharon Olds' poem, "The Planned Child" (824) is an example of interpretation and meaning becoming more evident after analysis. In the poem the speaker's attitude changes from animosity, to uncertainty, then to appreciation. The poet illustrates these attitude changes through use of description and diction.

In the first stanza, Olds vividly animates the speaker's disgust of being a planned child. The speaker finds her conception an unemotional, insignificant event. "She had taken a cardboard out of his shirt from the laundry..." (lines 1 and 2), "...and made a chart of the month and put her temperature on it, rising and falling to know the day to make me..." (lines 4-6). The speaker is dissatisfied with her planned conception.

"The Planned Child" accentuates the changing attitudes the speaker has about her conception and birth. In the poem, Olds combines description and diction to portray the speaker's attitudes of animosity, uncertainty, and appreciation. She also uses simple jargon to illustrate these attitude changes. Therefore, "The Planned Child" illustrates that a normal everyday interaction with a friend can turn an attitude of hate into an attitude of appreciation.

In lines 16 through 22 of the second stanza, the speaker has come to appreciate her conception and birth. A mother and father sincerely want to bear a child to go through the long process of charting monthly an "x on the rising line" (line 9 and 10) of a graph. Making that one moment of conception indeed filled with love and emotion. Meaning, the child that is born from this conception is a child who is "wanted" (line 12) and a child that is far from a sexual mistak

Some common words found in the essay are:
Planned Child, Tone Examining, speaker's attitude, conception birth, planned child, Sharon Olds', attitude changes, attitude uncertainty, description diction, line 12, animosity uncertainty appreciation, child line 12, uncertainty appreciation, speaker's attitude uncertainty, diction stanza, line 9,
Approximate Word count = 623
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)