The Swimmer's Moment Margaret Avison Summary

815 Words2 Pages

In Margaret Avison’s poem titled “The Swimmer’s Moment,” she depicts individuals of the human race as swimmers debating whether or not their thirst for knowledge justifies imminent dangers of swimming into a whirlpool. With this analogy, Avison claims that, although it may be tempting to stay innocently yet safely ignorant, pursuing the quenching of curiosity is worth the chance of enlightenment. In the first stanza, Avison describes the scenario of swimmers that refuse to swim in the whirlpool. Initially, she claims that such people, “by the refusal… are saved,” suggesting that ignorance of chasing after knowledge can often be the most appealing option due to the fact that they need not carry the burden of experience with them. Using …show more content…

Blank faces of said swimmers means that they seem not to have any aspirations, and, therefore, not true value in existing. This causes them to swim in circles, without end and any true destination worth reaching, thusly. Them having pale faces, moreover, suggests their lack of experience, namely, going out to explore. A pale complexion is also associated, typically, with the connotation of nervousness or fright. These words describing cowering swimmers contrast with the seeming pleasantness contained within ignorance so as to communicate Avison’s message that mindless conformity and lack of yearning to attain enlightenment and the truth can be enticing, as it means leading a simple life, yet it furthermore states that said people live in a pitiful state of irrational operation with no real meaning other than to live and to

Open Document