Father
In 1992, Olds published a collection of verse titled The Father, which was an autobiographical chronicling of her dad’s death from cancer. Including the poems featured in that collection, it has been estimated that roughly one-fifth of all the poems published by Olds feature a character based on her father. As one would expect, the character of the father is multi-dimensional; sometimes an object of adoration, sometimes an object of hate, sometimes an object of pity.
Mother
If one begins reading the poetry of Olds chronologically in order of publication, their introduction to the character of Olds’ mother is bound to come as a shock: “My mother is a pimp.” The assertion is not meant to be taken literally, of course, and the character of the mother develops both literally and metaphorically as one makes their way through that chronological tour of deeply confessional poetry.
The Poet
Olds won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2012 collection Stag’s Leap. Like The Father, this volume is intensely—almost excruciatingly—personal as poetic autobiography of a single sustained event. Like that earlier volume, this one also deals with a death. Of sorts. The main character in Stag’s Leap is Olds herself as she recounts the collapse and ultimate ending of her marriage.
The Poet's Husband
The other main character of Stag’s Leap is, of course, Olds’ husband. His adultery is forwarded as the overarching cause of her marriage ending in the sense of his decision to leave her for another woman. Through a series of confessional verse, however, Olds presents a much more complicated portrait of a marriage with a more complex explanation for its ultimate failure.
