The Lifting (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Sharon Olds
- First Published: 1992
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: United States or Americans, Parents and children, Cancer, Fathers, Death or dying, Life and death
The collection from which this poem comes concerns the death of Olds's father from cancer, and it details her evolving relationship with the cold, alcoholic man who so hurt her and her family when she was a child. The father's death occurs about halfway through the collection; the poems following his death describe how their relationship continues to grow and deepen even after he has died. “The Lifting” is set not long before he dies, and it incorporates elements that are typical of Olds's work, particularly in her awareness of her father's sexuality and her linkage of that...
[The entire page is 585 words long]
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