Sex Without Love Literary Devices

Within “Sex Without Love” Sharon Olds uses questions formed within the poem and answers the questions with literary devices. The meaning behind is done with average everyday things like babies and ice skating. To start the poem Olds uses the question “How do they do it, the ones who make love without love?” The answer to the question is a simile comparing making love to ice skating, which we can think of ice skaters preforming a routine. The routine is usually very graceful and beautiful, the skaters do it for the soul joy and happiness of it. Also using symbolism with the ice skating when you have sex without love it’s like empty cold feeling, like the ice on a rink it is cold so it can be used to skate on. Icey cold feelings are present in both of this situations which connects them. …show more content…
Usually we think of child has little bundles of joy and happiness, but once again relating it back to the ice, there is a coldness in leaving children to the cold. Relating it back to the title when you have sex without love you might have unwanted pregnancies and children that weren’t wanted could follow after that. Not wanting the child can result in a resentment and coldness to the child and want to get rid of it since there is no happiness connected with it. The use of religion intertwined with partners that don’t love each other is very contradictory for a lot of religious cultures, sex is supposed to be saved for marriage or at least thought of to be between someone you love. The phrase “come to God’ and “false Messiah” use a sort of religious context to explain that if you look at a false Messiah you will not ever fulfill the love you are looking for in someone else, there will always be something missing which can include a relationship that is lacking