description The Wellspring Overview
The Wellspring is a poetry collection by American poet Sharon Olds, published in the 1990s. Its poems examine childhood, parents, marriage, sexuality, childbirth, and the experience of raising children, using the intimate family material and direct treatment of the body associated with Olds's work. The collection is aimed at readers of contemporary American lyric and autobiographical poetry.
help The Wellspring FAQ
What stages of life does Sharon Olds cover in The Wellspring?
The collection moves through childhood, adolescence, sexual awakening, marriage, motherhood, and family memory. Its structure gives the poems a loose life-cycle progression rather than a single continuous narrative.
Is The Wellspring an autobiographical poetry collection?
The speakers draw heavily on intimate family and bodily experience, a hallmark of Olds's work. It is commonly read as confessional poetry, though a poetic speaker should not automatically be treated as a literal documentary record.
When was The Wellspring published?
Alfred A. Knopf published The Wellspring in the mid-1990s, with editions commonly dated 1996. It followed The Father and preceded Blood, Tin, Straw in Olds's bibliography.
How does The Wellspring compare with Stag's Leap?
The Wellspring spans childhood, sexuality, marriage, and motherhood, while Stag's Leap concentrates on the dissolution of Olds's long marriage. Stag's Leap later won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
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