In “Crossing the Swamp” by Mary Oliver; she argues that chaos can produce new life. The speaker changes their perspective towards the end of the poem. While describing the swamp the author is able to convey a deeper meaning that is representative of the life. Oliver uses both repetition and personification to form an intriguing poem about the challenging and opportunistic relationship that the swamp has with the speaker.
As Oliver begins the poem the reader can feel the dismal tone is brought about by the description of the swamp. As she continues describing the swamp there are a couple of parts that stand out. The first is the repetition of words that end in –less, “pathless, seamless, peerless mud (lines 12-13).” These words, while making the reader focus on the description, convey the complexities of the swamp. These words also present the reader with a challenge as they cross the swamp through Oliver’s writings. The next part describes the challenges of trying to get through the swamp, “trying foothold, fingerhold, mindhold over such slick crossings (lines 16-18).” The repetition of the words ending in –hold show the dismay of the narrator as he/she attempts to gain stability in the swamp. Moreover, Oliver makes up the word mindhold to show, not
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only is crossing the swamp physically difficult, passing through the swamp requires a certain mental grit. When Oliver switches to using personification towards the end of the poem the tone shifts from a hopeless voice to a motivating and reassuring voice.
This shift in the tone provides for a great switch to a new device. Oliver uses personification to show the possibility the swamp offers, “a bough that still, after all these years could take root, sprout, branch out, bud – make of its life a breathing palace of leaves (lines 31-36).” Beforehand, Oliver talks about a stick given one more chance. She discusses the start of the stick as if the stick were a child going through the stages of life. The description and personification leaves the reader with a sense of hope when encountered by the chaotic nature of the
swamp. The speaker’s relationship with the swamp is one that includes challenge and opportunity. Through the repetition of dark descriptions of the swamp, symbolic of chaos, we can see the challenges that the swamp presents. The personification conveys a brighter side showing the opportunity and hope that resides within the swamp. Oliver is able to convey the complex relationship between the speaker and swamp as she shifts through a weary tone to one of prosperity and life-giving.
...ntion of memories sweeping past, making it seem that the grass is bent by the memories like it is from wind. The grass here is a metaphor for the people, this is clear in the last line, “then learns to again to stand.” No matter what happens it always gets back up.
Barry defines the Mississippi’s unpredictability through an “uncoiling rope.” One cannot experience an act such as that of an uncoiling rope, in it’s smooth, but quick movements. Its destination cannot be anticipated and its course of action can only be speculated. By using a single phrase, like “uncoiling rope,” Barry guides his audience to a complete picture of the fascinating Mississippi. He gives life to the Mississippi by relating it to a snake. His snake-related diction, such as “roils” and “uncoiling” present the river with lifelike qualities that extend Barry’s purpose in saying that the incredible river can actually stand on it’s own. Furthermore, Barry describes the river in similes in order to compare the Mississippi to a snake, in a sense of both power and grace. The river “devours itself”, “sucking” at the surface around it, and “scouring out holes” in its depths. Barry’s combination of personifying diction and similes provide his audience with a relation in which one understands the Mississippi’s paradox of strength and unpredictability, and
Humankind has been facing and conquering problems, droughts, famines, and wars for instance, since the beginning of its existence. Throughout an individual’s life, obstacles arise and challenges present themselves in an attempt to inhibit the individual from moving forward. In her poem Crossing the Swamp, Mary Oliver utilizes a variety of techniques to expand on this idea, establishing a relationship between the speaker and the swamp as one of determination and realized appreciation.
Wetherell, W.D. "The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGrawHill, 2003. 191-196.
reacts to the crosser. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker’s first impression of the swamp
Foulcher’s Summer Rain represents a juxtaposed view of suburbia towards the natural environment throughout his poem, as he explains societies daily repetitive tasks. This idea is expressed through Foulcher’s use of simile, in the stanza “steam rising from ovens and showers like mist across a swampland.” This simile makes the comparison between average tasks completed in the urban world, such as cooking or showering to a natural situation such as a swampland, creating a feeling of bother and discomfort for the readers, as swamplands are generally humid, insect ridden and muddy. This effectively makes the readers feel this way, not of the swamplands that are compared, but of the tasks in the home that are conveyed. Similarly, Foulcher uses simile in “clutter on the highway like abacus beads. No one dares overtake,” to illustrate the lack of free will in society as abacus beads are on a set path, there is no freedom or individuality. This demonstrates how where everything is busy and cramped, there is no room in society to notice the small simplistic divinities in the natural world around them. The complexity and mundanity of society causes the simplistic beauties of nature to be
Therefore, Oliver’s incorporation of imagery, setting, and mood to control the perspective of her own poem, as well as to further build the contrast she establishes through the speaker, serves a critical role in creating the lesson of the work. Oliver’s poem essentially gives the poet an ultimatum; either he can go to the “cave behind all that / jubilation” (10-11) produced by a waterfall to “drip with despair” (14) without disturbing the world with his misery, or, instead, he can mimic the thrush who sings its poetry from a “green branch” (15) on which the “passing foil of the water” (16) gently brushes its feathers. The contrast between these two images is quite pronounced, and the intention of such description is to persuade the audience by setting their mood towards the two poets to match that of the speaker. The most apparent difference between these two depictions is the gracelessness of the first versus the gracefulness of the second. Within the poem’s content, the setting has been skillfully intertwined with both imagery and mood to create an understanding of the two poets, whose surroundings characterize them. The poet stands alone in a cave “to cry aloud for [his] / mistakes” while the thrush shares its beautiful and lovely music with the world (1-2). As such, the overall function of these three elements within the poem is to portray the
In Mary Oliver’s poem “The Black Snake,” the narrator contemplates the cycle of life with the unpredictability of death. Mary Oliver’s work is “known for its natural themes and a continual affirmation of nature as a place of mystery and spirituality that holds the power to teach humans how to value one’s life and one’s place” (Riley). In the poem, The Black Snake, the narrator witnesses a black snake hit by a truck and killed on a road one morning. Feeling sympathy for the snake, the narrator stops, and removes the dead snake from the road. Noting the snake’s beauty, the narrator carries it from the road to some nearby bushes. Continuing to drive, the narrator reflects on how the abruptness of death ultimately revealed how the snake lived his life.
...e river is one that the reader definitely would not see in the beginning, when the middle-aged man was complaining about simple, mundane things in his simple, mundane life. It took him this trip—and all the terrifying experiences that came with it—to realize that his ideal of nature was very different from its true form, however complex it may be. He went into the adventure with a cautious attitude, even when he tried to explore the unknowns surrounding him. But once he had ridden the rapids like they were a bucking bull, ran from rabid hillbillies, buried a body, and climbed a cliff with only his body as a tool, he was finally able to see nature’s true self and accept that it was not all pretty trees and a lone river. It was an unstoppable beast that one had to have firsthand experiences with to make a connection with—a connection that changed Ed Gentry for good.
Hughes emphasizes his message consistently throughout this poem, weaving in the most important line in the middle and end of the poem. He is representing his people. African Americans have waited and been abused by society, and this deepened and weathered their souls over time, just as a river would become deepened and weathered. Hughes’ soul, the collective soul of African Americans, has become “deep like the rivers” (5). This simile speaks that the rivers are part of the body, and contribute to this immortality that Hughes is so desperate to achieve for his people. Rivers are the earthly symbols of eternity: deep, constant, mystifying.
Woven throughout are several similes and metaphors, and an extended metaphor is strewn about almost the entire poem, lasting from lines 2-21. For the duration of those lines, the son's tough journey through life is compared to a restless, difficult journey through rough water. "He, who navigated with success / the dangerous river of his own birth"
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
This student is pointing out how natural it is to follow and have your instincts. You may enjoy the things that cause you to separate from nature, but really, you need to become one with nature. Oliver’s poem is actually pretty persuasive. In the beginning she is illustrating how you do not have to do certain things to obtain happiness, but toward the end she is talking about your satisfaction with these others things that will actually satisfy you more by doing the one-with-nature-things.
The symbolism is started as a cricket is introduced. Oliver presents a solitary cricket moving the grains on a hillside (5-8). The struggle and progression of the cricket allows her theme to develop. The cricket moves the grains by himself, which supports
After reading the first few paragraphs, The Other Side of the Hedge, by E. M. Forster, seems to be nothing more than a story about a man walking down a long road. The narrator's decision to go through the hedge transforms the story into an allegory that is full of symbols representing Forster's view of the journey of life. The author develops the allegory through the use of several different symbols including the long road, the hedge and the water.