For all of his interest in painting, it is the immediacy of O'Hara's voice that is the most striking part of his poetry. Some teachers are afraid to address the homosexual content of his poems. I have discovered that addressing the issue as just one more subject reduces the students' discomfort. We must be ready to confront attitudes and positions we both share and do not share. Major Themes, Historical Perspectives, and Personal Issues Like John Ashbery , O'Hara's friend and fellow Harvard alumnus, O'Hara is always concerned with time and mutability.
Openness is a key word for O'Hara.
He wants his poems and his love to be open. We can discuss open poetic forms, open relationships, openness to experience, a willingness to court vulgarity and sentimentality. But openness makes one vulnerable. O'Hara is haunted by this sense of vulnerability to outside enemies and forces. It might be useful to look at how the form of the sonnet, although not copied, haunts the structure of this poem.