Rite of Passage

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1984

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Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“The Signal” by Sharon Olds (1981)

Included in the same collection as “Rite of Passage,” this poem deals more directly with war, particularly WWI, narrating the story of a soldier who is killed while in battle through his surviving widow. Along with other poems in The Living and the Dead, this poem takes on a more societal and historical subject matter than Sharon Olds’s previous work, which dwelled strictly in autobiography. Its themes of the costs of war and destruction, however, resonate with similar themes about war, life, and death in “Rite of Passage.”

“Language of the Brag” by Sharon Olds (1980)

Included in Olds’s debut collection, Satan Says, “Language of the Brag” details the poet’s observations on motherhood in the context of creativity and life-giving, which echoes similar themes in “Rite of Passage.” The poem presents the birth and creation experience as an antithesis to war, death, and destruction, which is often prized in society more than the experience of creating life as a mother.

“My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds (1996)

While there are many poems that touch on Sharon Olds’s children, this one, taken from her collection The Wellspring, has thematic resonances with “Rite of Passage.” The poem charts the development of the speaker’s son as he grows up, as well as Olds’s self-proclaimed “fear of men” that must be overwritten as her son matures. While “Rite of Passage” draws its subject matter from a childhood birthday party scene of the poet’s son, her later poems reflect on her observation of her children as they become adults, comparing her son to Harry Houdini in reference to his transformation from a child into an adult man.

Further Literary Resources

“Sex, Death, and Family: Sharon Olds Is Still Shockingly Intimate” by Sam Anderson (2022)

This profile explores Olds’s life as a poet and her work itself, discussing her use of autobiographical details and personal experience, including mothering two children after suffering an abusive childhood of her own, all of which informs much of her writing throughout her long career.

“Mothering in the Poems of Sharon Olds” by Elizabeth M. Johnson (2002)

This academic essay explores Sharon Olds and the portrayal of motherhood she offers in the span of her work both through her own experience raising two children and writing extensively about it in her work, as well as writing about her own mother and upbringing, including the abuse she suffered at the hands of an alcoholic father and her mother’s lack of action to stop the abuse.

“Sharon Olds: Americas Brave Poet of the Body” by John Freeman (2017)

This interview and profile of Olds’s work discusses her past literary career as well as her experience as she began publishing poems that were rooted in autobiography and family life, which was often met with resistance from editors at established literary magazines who were taken aback by her frank and personal subject matter.