Sharon Olds's first book [Satan Says], which is uncompromisingly autobiographical, is divided into sections titled for the roles in which she experiences herself, "Daughter," "Woman," and "Mother." There is also a fourth section, called "Journeys," which implicitly connects the three roles. The poems are passionate and, especially in the "Daughter" group, explosive with pain and anger. She moves (and usually persuades) us by the very passion, even need, of her utterance. By the same token, she sometimes allows her rage to go out of control, using a voice so vehement, a language so hyperbolic, as to incur disbelief, at least in this reader. The line Sharon Olds 1942– © Thomas Victor 1984between a language that can accommodate extremes of hurt and outrage, and a language that either distorts or fails to sustain its momentum, is especially thin in the first half of the book, which also contains some instances of...