Sex Without Love by Sharon Olds

If you just skim "Sex Without Love" without reading it, it just looks like a bunch of phrases and similes that don't correlate to the title. Upon further examination, it becomes apparent that this poem is actually an explicit and harsh judgement of those who choose to engage in casual sex. "How do they do it, the ones who make love/without love? (lines 1-2)" Olds compares two casual lovers as being as "beautiful as dancers (line 2)," like children being given up for adoption (lines 7-8), like worshipers (lines 13-16) and "like great runners (line 18)." She describes sex as something pure, almost like a religious experience, something shared, something beautiful. She doesn't know how one can engage in something that she finds so beautiful without loving one another but commends them for the honesty in their desire to have sex just to have sex. Her use of irony makes it sound like she pities those who have sex without love.