According to Kelly J Mays, “Poems differ as much as the people who write and read them” (Mays 730). Poems are up to the interpretation of the reader, and therein lies the beauty of poetry. Poetry can practically mean anything, so long as the reader uses the material they were given. The interpretations of both “Wedding Ring” by Denise Levertov and “Sex Without Love” by Sharon Olds can have vast variation, but for this context, the focus will be on relationships. Both poems are about love and intimate relationship, or rather the failings and shortcomings of love and intimate relationships. In analyzing these poems, readers can find the true tragic beauty of these failings.

“Wedding Ring” is a poem written by Denise Levertov in 1978. Published only 4 years after her own divorce, “Wedding Ring” is about a speaker who is thinking about their wedding ring. It has been discarded, and now exists without purpose, and the speaker muses about the worth and value of other household items. On the other hand, “Sex Without Love” is a poem about the intricate workings of a relationship where sex is present, but there is no love. Written by Sharon Olds in the early 1940s, this poem likens these people to various athletes and wonders how the relationship is even truly a relationship. At their core, these poems are about the relationships in the lives of humanity, with a specific focus on the shortcomings or failings of these relationships. “Wedding Ring” speaks of the literal failures of marriages, while “Sex Without Love” speaks to the shortcomings of a purely physical relationship that lacks any form of emotional intimacy.

When talking about poetry, it is impossible to establish meaning and significance without addressing the thematic elements of the poems themselves. As stated in the previous paragraph, these poems are about relationships. To be hyper-specific, these poems are about failed relationships. The speaker in “Wedding Ring” tells readers “My wedding-ring lies in a basket/as if at the bottom of a well” (Levertov 1-2). Clearly, the speaker’s marriage has failed. There can be no doubt in the minds of the readers that Levertov’s speaker is no longer in this relationship, and the fallen ring is merely a symbol of a failed relationship. In “Sex Without Love,” the speaker tells readers that any relationship where physicality is present without emotional commitment must inherently be a failed relationship. There can be no relationship that is purely physical attachment in the eyes of this speaker. In fact, the first line in the poem opens with “How do they do it” (Olds 1). The speaker cannot even understand how people like these have relationships without any sort of emotional attachment or commitment. It is baffling to Olds and to the speaker, and the situational ignorance of both author and speaker is made very clear to the audience. In both the emotional and physical, these poems speak to the duality of failed relationships. This duality, of course, referring to the overwhelming influx of emotions and the numbness that comes with such emotional detachment. This contradictory existence is made clear in the poems through the use of imagery and syntax.

            One of poetry’s greatest weapons is its use of imagery to convey complex emotions; imagery can be simply defined as using words to create pictures, or “images,” in the minds of the readers. In The Norton Introduction to Literature, Kelly J Mays has the following to say about visual imagery: “Visualization can also derive from sophisticated rhetorical and literary devices (figures of speech, for example…But often description begins simply with naming—providing the word…that will trigger images familiar from a reader’s own experience” (866-867). The complex emotions felt behind the failed relationships of these poems can only be fully known through the understanding of both poems put together, rather than a separate understanding. “Sex Without Love” speaks to the lack of emotional connection, while “Wedding Ring” speaks to the missing piece of losing ones “other half.” “Sex Without Love” makes use of physical imagery, citing various athletes. Olds’ poem mentions dancers, ice skaters, and runners. All of these athletes are technique-based athletes, which could be the reason they were selected for use in this poem. Further discussion of the reasoning behind their selection would lead to discussion that is most likely improper in an academic essay, and should be saved for a later point. The other important note to make about the imagery selected by Olds is that it is always focused on people in the present. It is focused on the actions of people in the current moment, or “in the now.” On the other hand, “Wedding Ring” is more focused on object imagery. These objects also have significance to the past, which is in contrast to the former poem. The images that Levertov chooses to make use of include “keys to abandoned houses, nails waiting to be needed and hammered/into some wall,/telephone numbers with no name attached,/idle paperclips” (Levertov 6-10). All of these items were once practical things to have around the house, but they have now lost their purpose. Such as the speaker feels, all of these items are now worthless without their purpose to fulfill.

It is very common for people to misunderstand the meaning of diction, and therefore misinterpret their information. According to Kelly J Mays, diction “determined not only meaning but also just about every effect the poem produces” (854). So, to better understand the poems in this essay, readers must look to the specific words chose by Levertov and Olds. Readers must re-read and study the details to understand the nuance. For example, “Sex Without Love” uses a lot of religious lingo as a marker for intimacy. Olds claims that these people “are the true religious,” saying that they “will not accept a false Messiah, love the/priest instead of the God” (Olds 13, 15-16).  Why choose religious words? Why not simply say “they will not love when it is not needed?” Why make things more complex for readers? The answer is quite simple when readers know what to look for. The religious lingo is used because American Society is heavily Christian, meaning most people will understand the references with relative ease. Also, religious relationships with God are seen as intimate, and are therefore a perfect example to use in regards to physical intimacy. The same types of phrasing are used in “Wedding Ring.” However, instead of speaking on physical intimacy, words are specifically chosen for their “worthlessness.” They are chosen to prove just how “useless” the world now seems.

            Side-by-side, these poems share a great deal. Both poems, as stated ad nauseum, are about the failings and shortcomings of human relationships. However, herein lies the greatest difference between the two poems: “Wedding Ring” is about the failings of emotional connection through marriage, while “Sex Without Love” is about the shortcomings of a purely physical relationship. The two poems share similar word structure, seeing as how both authors chose to write freely, with little regard to sentence structure. While this may seem irritating as a reader, it is brilliant when analyzed through a literature lens; there is great reasoning behind fragmented sentences in poetry, and it is just simply genius.

            Poetry is often misunderstood and cast aside as a subject to only look at in English classes. However, poems are often the lyrics to human affliction and a cathartic response to what ails humanity. Poems are a way for people to express their deepest thoughts and emotions through the use of words and images. “Wedding Ring” and “Sex Without Love” are two poems that encase the beauty of failure. Through the failures and the shortcomings, humanity finds the “human experience.” The human experience is to fail and to feel the emotions one feels when failing. The human experience is to experience a broad range of emotion and to fully know what one is feeling. “Wedding Ring” embraces feelings of worthlessness and uselessness, while “Sex Without Love” talks about feelings of isolation and loneliness in an intimate setting. They dare readers to feel the feelings they are describing and to bask in the tragedy of it all. Poetry, specifically these poems, is a call to feel the tragedies in our own lives. It is a call to failure. It is a call to be human.

WORKS CITED

Levertov, Denise. “Wedding Ring.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, Oct. 2020, http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53080/wedding-ring.

Olds, Sharon. “Sex Without Love.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, by Kelly J. Mays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, pp. 859.

“Poetry.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, by Kelly J. Mays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2019, pp. 730–898.