I Go Back to May 1937

“I Go Back to May 1937” is a thirty-line poem in free verse without stanza breaks nor identifiable meter and rhyme. The poem is organized by a vivid description of the speaker’s parents, which adds to a sense of objective visualization before it moves into how the relationship becomes abusive and what that means emotionally for the speaker. The speaker then pulls back and then uses visual imagery to create a show of puppetry in which they control their parents. The poet’s use of shifts in time as well as feeling adds to the emotional ambiguity the speaker has about their parents’ union.

Some critics have seen Olds’s use of form as chaotic, particular when a lack of strong words at the end of lines is observable. In “I Go Back to May 1937,” Olds often ends lines on inconsequential words like “the” (Line 3), “its” (Line 8), and “of” (Line 18). However, Olds has spoken about her use of form and her deliberate method. She notes in her interview with Mary Block in Washington Square that she enjoys “the look of the big clump—with different length lines.