Youth and Old Age: Poetic Techniques in "35-10" Anonymous College

All humans face the struggle of aging. With the passage of time, one must grow old and eventually perish. Aging is something we fear, as it brings on a variety of physical, psychological, and socially constructed ailments. Often there is the idea that youth can be preserved or passed on to a person’s offspring, but vicariously living through one’s child can be detrimental to one’s confidence. In Sharon Olds’ poem, “35/10”, the speaker is a mother who observes her daughter and notes changes happening to both of them. Many of these changes seem to happen in tandem - as the daughter grows in a certain way, her mother metamorphizes in another fashion. However, there is a negative sense surrounding the physical changes that the mother experiences, which becomes apparent throughout the poem. Olds uses tactile, visual, and olfactory imagery in order to create a contrast between the ages of the mother and her daughter and reinforce the speaker’s idea that youth is more physically desirable than old age.

Tactile imagery peppers “35-10” and its use furthers the speaker’s idea that aging makes a person less attractive. The first use of tactile imagery to emphasize a contrast between the speaker and her daughter occurs when the speaker...