The Unswept Room

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Summary: I've seen her read...
Review: Despite some readership's lack of comprehension for the genuis that is Sharon Olds, I am a believer in her as art and artist. I've seen her read (at Oklahoma State University) and was held in awe by her delivery and the new poems she read to the audience. I respect her as a poet, a woman, an artist, an honest voice to depict real-life horror. Poetry is not an artifact for a reader to condemn (or praise too highly). Just observe, open yourself to the experience, and be contently uncomfortably (or uncomfortably content) in the reactions churning within yourself.

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Summary: Great work
Review: I applaud Sharon Olds for not bowing to the literati's mandate that all poetry must rhyme, be a sonnet, a villanelle, pantoum. This is free verse at its finest. It may not subscribe to a "type" but it is lyrical and poetic just the same. Poetry is evolving and many of today's writers are moving away from the strict rhyme and meter. The poetry in The Unswept Room is some of Olds' finest work. After the brilliant and harrowing poetry about her abuse as a child, this volume finds a more settled Olds starting a new chapter in her life. Bravo.

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Summary: Proof that people don't understand good poetry
Review: I could be reviewing any of Olds' books and it wouldn't matter. They are all dreadful. The woman cannot break a line. Why does she feel the need to break her lines at "a" and "the"? Not only that, she is a very LAZY poet filled with cliches and absolute self-obsession. I do not care about her bodily functions. How boring! I once saw online a guy who called her "5th rate Sylvia Plath 40 years too late." And I think that about sums it up.

Rating:
Summary: Proof that people don't understand good poetry
Review: I could be reviewing any of Olds' books and it wouldn't matter. They are all dreadful. The woman cannot break a line. Why does she feel the need to break her lines at "a" and "the"? Not only that, she is a very LAZY poet filled with cliches and absolute self-obsession. I do not care about her bodily functions. How boring! I once saw online a guy who called her "5th rate Sylvia Plath 40 years too late." And I think that about sums it up.

Rating:
Summary: Great work
Review: Sharon Olds does not disappoint. This is my new favorite book!

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Summary: "The Unswept Room" is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist
Review: Sharon Olds' "The Unswept Room" is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Poetry. That alone makes the book worth paying attention to.
The National Book Foundation wrote "A new collection of poems from a distinguished poet, ranging from those erupting out of history and childhood, a new generation of children, the transformative power of marital love, and the shock when that love comes to an end."
If you enjoyed her previous poems, you will like this one too.

Rating:
Summary: FAR TOO PROSAIC
Review: Strong, beautiful and breathtaking.

I didn't think Olds' work could get any stronger, but it does. Her sense of meter and her willingness to take the reader on a real leap of mind and heart are even more developed here than in her earlier work. A must-read for any poet or anyone who likes poetry.