Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Babysitter" by Sharon Olds is an evocative and intense exploration of yearning, loneliness, and the complexities of human desire. The poem recounts a night when the speaker, tasked with babysitting a six-month-old girl, experiences an overwhelming need for connection and physical intimacy. Through candid and visceral imagery, Olds navigates themes of maternal longing, sexual frustration, and the search for self-fulfillment.

The poem opens with a simple setting: "The baby was about six months old, / a girl." This straightforward introduction sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the speaker's inner world. The mention of "The length of her life, I had not / touched anyone" immediately signals a profound sense of isolation and longing. The speaker's physical and emotional distance from others is palpable, setting up the central conflict of the poem.

As the evening unfolds, the speaker holds the baby "along my arm and / put her mouth to my cotton shirt." This intimate gesture is laden with a desire for connection and nurturing, a yearning for the closeness and dependency that a nursing child represents. The speaker admits, "I didn’t really know what a person was," highlighting a disconnect from her own sense of identity and humanity. This lack of understanding amplifies her desire for someone to "suck my breast," seeking validation and purpose through the act of feeding and being needed.

The poem's tension rises as the speaker retreats to the bathroom, "naked to the waist, holding the baby." The locked bathroom serves as a symbolic space of privacy and introspection, where the speaker confronts her own needs and desires. The baby's innocent, nonsexual interest in the speaker's glasses—"all she wanted was my glasses"—contrasts sharply with the speaker's more complex, adult longing. The speaker's frustrated internal command, "Suck me, goddamnit," underscores her desperate craving for the physical and emotional bond that breastfeeding symbolizes.

This unmet desire leads to a poignant realization: "clearly it / was the week for another line of work." The speaker acknowledges the inappropriateness of her feelings and the impossibility of fulfilling her needs in this context. After putting the baby to bed and singing to her "for the last time," the speaker retreats to the bathroom once more, now alone and vulnerable.

The poem's climax occurs in a strikingly candid and intimate scene: "Back in the bathroom / I lay on the floor in the dark, bared / my chest against the icy tile." The cold, hard surface of the tile starkly contrasts with the warmth and softness associated with nurturing and intimacy. This physical discomfort mirrors the speaker's emotional state, underscoring her feelings of emptiness and isolation. The act of self-pleasure—"slipped my hand between my legs and / rode, hard, against the hard floor"—serves as a raw expression of the speaker's need for release and connection, even if it can only be found within herself.

The final image, "my nipples holding me up off the glazed / blue, as if I were flying upside / down under the ceiling of the world," encapsulates the disorienting and surreal nature of the speaker's experience. The metaphor of flying upside down suggests a sense of inversion and dislocation, as if the speaker is caught in a world turned on its head, struggling to find her place and balance.

"The Babysitter" is a powerful meditation on the complexities of human desire, the need for connection, and the sometimes painful process of self-discovery. Sharon Olds skillfully uses intimate and sometimes unsettling imagery to explore the speaker's emotional landscape, capturing the rawness of unmet needs and the ways in which we seek to fulfill them. The poem's honesty and vulnerability invite readers to confront the often unspoken aspects of longing and the human condition, making it a poignant and thought-provoking work.

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