Summary Of The Centaur By May Swenson

“The Centaur”
May Swenson utilizes literary elements such as imagery, structure, language, point of view, and shifts throughout “The Centaur.” These literary elements demonstrate childhood’s lightheartedness and innocence and later conforming to society’s standards.
The free-style structure and imagery of the poem show the speaker’s memory of the summer. The blank verse demonstrates the point of view of a young, pure, ten year old girl, it is unstructured and lively. The speaker’s memory moves easily through summer. The speaker was very determined to create her horse the way she wanted it, the horse was “long,” “limber,” and had a “good thick knob” for his head after she cut it with her brother’s knife. The imagery also demonstrates the speaker’s

movement and excitement throughout the poem. The speaker and the horse “canter[ed],” “trot[ted],” “pawed,” “swished,” and ran, all while the horse’s hoofs were turning into “swift half-moons” because they were moving so quickly. At first, her hair was “like the mane of a horse,” but then the hair was transformed into the horse’s “forelock” while they reared and skittered. While the steed wheeled and “gallop[ed],” the speaker sat “quiet[ly]” as they approached her house. While she is imagining the wildness of the horse, she also envisions herself sitting calmly and maturely on the horse. The imagery of the speaker and the horse present her innocence, fun, and carefree, relaxed attitude. The free-moving structure of the poem contributes to the young, carefree point of view of a ten year old girl.
Throughout the summer, the speaker is so obsessed with horses that she imagines that she actually is a horse.

Her diction and point of view demonstrate childlike innocence and cheerfulness. Her point of view begins as an adult remembering her past, then shifts as if a child was describing the summer. Her adult point of view is incredulous that there was “only one” summer that she was ten because it has so many wonderful memories. A ten-year old’s informal and uneducated language would include that she had “cut me” a horse and “filled me” a cup of water. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker describes herself as a human, but as the poem continues, her description combines human and horse characteristics. At first, it is just the horse’s hoofs that hide her toes, and then there is a shift in the poem where she explains that her head and neck were hers, “yet they were shaped like a horse.” Her imagination of the transformation into both the horse and the rider is complete. She even states, “I was the horse and the rider.” At the beginning, when she went to her “stable,” she walked down on her “own two bare feet.” However, when she later returns to her house she gallops on her “two hoofs” and “we” came up to the porch. Swenson’s diction and point of view show the speaker’s childlike

memories.
The last five stanzas of “The Centaur” are dramatically different than the rest of the poem.

The structure shifts from mostly trimeters to include a single line, a dimeter, and a tetrameter. The house and the mother represent society in these stanzas. When the speaker arrives home, her mother wants her to change her appearance. While she imagines the horse, the speaker is strong, powerful, and free; however, when she arrives home, the speaker does not have any authority. As she gallops back to her house, the speaker “smooth[s]” her skirt before entering. Contrary to the “lovely dust” outside, the floor in the house is “clean linoleum” where her feet leave marks. The speaker’s tone shifts from imaginative and descriptive to factual and unattached. These stanzas show conformity to society even though the speaker’s tone is disinterested, she uses less details and no quotes. The speaker and mother both finally speak in theses last stanzas, the first time words are spoken in the poem. The mother’s comments toward the speaker demonstrate society’s attempt to force people to the norms.Her mother questions her as to what she has in her pocket, tells her to “tie back” her hair, and asks why her mouth is green. The mother’s tone is judgemental and even patronizing towards the girl. By stating that “Rob Roy... pulled some clover” as they passed through the field, the speaker does not see any problems or abnormality in her imaginative horse because she is naive to society’s standards.

The speaker’s own world of freedom and imagination contrasts her clean, strict home. The last stanzas of “The Centaur” present society’s draw and power through the description of the house and mother. The speaker’s tone shift and lack of imagery indicate her disinterest and unconcern towards conforming to society.
May Swenson’s use of many devices such as imagery, shifts, point of view, diction, and structure contribute to her tone in “The Centaur.” Her tone is nostalgic of a past summer and the point of view of a young ten year old girl is innocent and lively. The last stanzas of the piece shift and show society’s draw to conformity.