Crossing The Swamp By Mary Oliver

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In the poem, “Crossing The Swamp,” by Mary Oliver, the poet exhibits the relationship
of the swamp and speaker through imagery, personification, and long sentences. The use of
imagery illustrates the scene and tone of the speaker. The use of personification portrays the
speaker’s feelings of the swamp, as if it were alive.. Then, the use of long sentences reassures the
poem’s description of the never-ending the swamp, contributing to the speaker’s struggles of
crossing the swamp.
The use of imagery illustrates how the speaker views the swamp and how the swamp
reacts to the crosser. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker’s first impression of the swamp
was a knot of branches, soon to devour them. For an example,

“here is to the endless wet thick
cosmos,” (Oliver 1). The quote means the speaker views the swamp as endless, with a negative
connotation of “wet.” Towards the middle of the poem, the swamp soon begins to grow on the
speaker, as they let their guard down. “I feel not wet so much as painted and glittered with the fat
grassy mires,” (Oliver 24). The quote describes the speaker feeling less uncomfortable, as they
deepen into the swamp. Lastly, the end of the poem describes the swamp as beauty to the
speaker, “make of its life a breathing palace of leaves,” (Oliver 35). The ending sentence of the
poem is important because it uses positive connotations, such as “palace,” to describe the
swamp’s beauty, other than wetness.
The poet’s use of personification contributes the the speaker’s feelings as they cross the
swamp. For an example, “the dark burred faintly belching bogs,” (Oliver 6). The poet gives the
dark and ground humanistic qualities, which contributes to the speaker feeling as if the swamp
can respond to them. As the poem goes on, the speaker feels an increased bond with the swamp,
due to personification. Additionally, the speaker describes how the swamp treats a stick, “a poor
dry stick given one more chance by the whims of the swamp water,” (Oliver 29). The speaker
acts if the swamp has feelings and can show forgiveness, especially to a small, as if meaningless,
stick.

This causes the speaker to ease the tension and adore the swamp for its kind act.
Long sentences, with plenty of commas, exemplifies the speaker crossing the swamp and
the speaker feeling as if the swamp goes on for forever. This contributes to the relationship, of
the speaker and the swamp, as if they as one. For instance, “here is to the endless wet thick
cosmos, the center of everything- the nugget of dense sap, branching vines, the dark burred
faintly belching bogs,” (Oliver 1). The tone for the rest of the poem was directed by the
beginning quote because it created a tranquil flow. The tranquility of the poem was created by
long sentences, describing the swamp as a calm, never-ending setting. If the poem were to instil
plenty of periods and short sentences, the speaker would feel rushed, unable to build the
relationship with a swamp. “Here is
swamp,
here is struggle, closure- pathless, seamless, peerless
mud, (Oliver 9). The speaker directed their attention to the swamp, the gentle flow of the poem
built a peaceful bond between the speaker and the swamp.
In essence, the use of imagery, personification, and sentence structure contributed to

the
strong bond, the swamp and the speaker built. The poet contributed various techniques to
establish and contribute to the relationship of the two. If the poet lacked such techniques, the
swamp and the speaker would have had fruitless attempts, of a relationship.
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