Crossing The Swamp Analysis

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Recommended: Importance of metaphor

In the poem “Crossing the Swamp” Mary Oliver uses descriptive language and metaphors to show the relationship between the speaker and the swamp. She also uses enjambment to improve sentence fluency and make the poem flow better than it would have otherwise. Oliver also uses first-person point of view to provide a different perspective on how she sees the swamp as well as to show how she feels. This allows the reader to put themselves in the speaker’s place and feel, see, and think what the speaker does. All of this combined makes the swamp feel eerie or like a place of potential and perhaps even rebirth. In the beginning of the poem Oliver uses language that makes the swamp feel eerie and slightly otherworldly. Everything in the swamp is “…pathless, seamless…”, as well as being described as “…endless wet thick cosmos, the center of everything…” which provides a sense of the swamp being separate from the rest of the world. By using descriptive words she shows how she gets lost in the swamp and feels “…painted, and glittered…” because of the mires. This ties into how the speaker sees themselves as “[A] poor dry stick…” which is part of the swamp and subject to its whims. Throughout the poem the speaker talks as if they are part of the swamp and this is slightly more blatant towards the end when they speak …show more content…

There is a subtle undertone of the presence of destiny as well as hope and rebirth. Though the poem starts out almost eerie, by the end it seems as though the speaker has either grown into themselves or has begun a fresh start. Oliver uses many different metaphors in the poem such as comparing the speaker to a stick and making the swamp seem like a living thing. By using these metaphors combined with vivid imagery Oliver makes the swamp come to life and seem like something more than just a

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