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On The Subway - Online Term Papers

On The Subway

The poem that I have chosen to write and analyze is "" 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 ...

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boy's appearance frightens her. She talks about his big feet with dark black sneakers with white laces and how they looked like a set intentional scars. Olds talked about what he looks like when he sees him, "He has the casual cold look of a mugger, alert under hooded lids" (7-9). She says that he is wearing red, which makes her thing of the blood inside of one's body. The speaker has on her black fur coat which makes for an inviting target.

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 between them, I think she is talking about how she frightened by him but he could be just as intimidated ...

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On The Subway. (2005, July 21). Retrieved October 3, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/On-The-Subway/30399

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 7/21/2005 02:00:21 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 799
Pages: 3

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