Poems by Sharon Olds

The two poems, “Rites of Passage” and “The Only Girls at a Boy’s Party”, by Sharon Olds, are great poems. The “Rites of Passage” tells of a boy who rises up to keep the piece at his birthday party. “The Only Girl at a Boy’s Party” tells a story of a girl prodigy who does math in her head even when she is swimming. These two poem’s ideas of heroism are different from John Updike’s “A&P”. They are different because Sammy’s moment of heroism is raised by admiration of the girls, while the boy in “Rites of Passage” rise up to keep the piece. This is a sign of a real leader. The girl in “The Only Girl at a Boy’s Party” was probably bored out of her mind so she entertained herself, which brought out her prodigy.