Introduction A Week Later is a poem that addresses the relationship between family members. It also addresses the persona’s memory, and what this memory does to the feelings of the persona. The persona is in a conflict within herself about the happenings in her life. These things are central in the persona’s life since the people involved are those who have been close to her (persona). This poem has an ambivalent mood, and the persona has different feelings about the same things. This is because she has experienced both the fine and the awful sides of the issues she is addressing. This makes the reader want to balance the feelings of the persona by using the things discussed in the poem. In this poem, the persona has ambivalent feelings about her experience, memory and relationships (Olds 54). Speakers Ambivalent Relationship to Memory The whole of this poem is a recount of the persona’s life. Her memory takes the reader through her life events, and how these events have shaped her life. The persona’s memory seems to be touching on the raw nerves of the persona, and the reader can feel with the persona (Olds 61). She presents conflicting ideas in the poem, and the reader is left at a fix of what to follow. In the opening line in this poem, the persona says that she had disclosed to a friend that she (persona) was unlikely to write anything on a certain event in her life. However, she continues to say that she could write about the same thing in a year’s time. This shows ambivalence in her presentation of ideas. The reader wonders whether the persona could remember the event well after the year has already passed. This is ambivalence since people remember things that took place recently better than those that happened long ago. The persona continues to say that she will write about that event sometime, but at the time the speaker is talking, the event is folded within her mind (Tanner 42). The persona’s memory takes her back to the time they divorced with her husband, here; the ambivalent mood is also evident. They have already divorced with her husband, but the persona still refers to him as her husband. This state of affairs makes the poem to contain an ambivalent mood. The persona says that she was with her husband only two years ago, yet she still misses him. The reader wonders why the persona uses the word only, yet she misses her husband after the two years. The persona is saying that her heart is ‘strictured’; this shows that she has not gotten over the loss of her husband. The persona remembers her husband; this memory affects her in that she feels broken-hearted by the loss. The persona’s memory also takes the reader to the building in which they (persona and her husband) signed divorce papers. The ambivalence at this time is reflected by the personas memory. She remembers that the lobby was full of beauty, but still, it looked like a king’s tomb. The beauty of the lobby is juxtaposed with the sadness of the tomb. This makes the poem to contain an ambivalent mood. The persona also remembers the time that she used to have with her husband. She remembers that, at that time, she used to know, touch, hear and see her husband. She thinks of life that her husband is leading, and she can not see, hear, know, or even touch him. The persona remembers the time she used to care for her aged and ailing mother. She juxtaposes the hope that her love to her husband held, but in the recent days, that love had died. This ref