Rite of Passage

“The Signal” by Sharon Olds (1981)

Included in the same collection as “Rite of Passage,” this poem deals more directly with war, particularly WWI, narrating the story of a soldier who is killed while in battle through his surviving widow. Along with other poems in The Living and the Dead, this poem takes on a more societal and historical subject matter than Sharon Olds’s previous work, which dwelled strictly in autobiography. Its themes of the costs of war and destruction, however, resonate with similar themes about war, life, and death in “Rite of Passage.”

“Language of the Brag” by Sharon Olds (1980)

Included in Olds’s debut collection, Satan Says, “Language of the Brag” details the poet’s observations on motherhood in the context of creativity and life-giving, which echoes similar themes in “Rite of Passage.” The poem presents the birth and creation experience as an antithesis to war, death, and destruction, which is often prized in society more than the experience of creating life as a mother.

“My Son the Man” by Sharon Olds (1996)

While there are many poems that touch on Sharon Olds’s children, this one, taken from her collection The Wellspring, has thematic resonances with “Rite of Passage.