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 …show more content…
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
Oliver begins by describing the swamp in a way that displays it as unrelenting and immovable, a struggle. The author uses zeugmas such as “pathless, seamless, peerless” to demonstrate that the speaker’s difficult travel through the swamp does not disturb it. Furthermore, the speaker’s trial “for foothold, fingerhold, mindhold” portrays the swamp as a power that is untouchable and unchallenged by humans. This idea is further supported by the author’s personification, stating “here is swamp, here is struggle” because
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.
mud, (Oliver 9). The speaker directed their attention to the swamp, the gentle flow of the poem
Nature’s beauty has the ability to both entice its audience and frighten them. Mary Oliver in her passage explains her experiences with the two sides of nature. Her experiences with the owls elicit both an awe response and a frightened one. In connection, her experiences with a field of flowers draws a similar response where she is both astonished by them and overwhelmed. Oliver’s complex responses display the two sides of nature. It's ability to be both captivating yet overwhelming in its complexity. In “Owl” Mary Oliver uses descriptions of nature demonstrated by owls and fields of flowers in order to convey her complex responses to the two sides of nature.
... to understand one another. Furthermore, while both poets encase aspects of the fish into their poems, Bishop’s interpretation of the fish places it at a distance because her block of text loaded with descriptions is how she sees the fish, which gives the image that she just feels pity for the fish but doesn’t really feel the need to delve deeper in understanding the essence of the fish. By contrast, Oliver’s interpretation of the fish embodies its’ essence because she does not rely on its appearance to understand it but rather when she consumes the fish, its’ spiritual aura merges within herself. Oliver captures the soul of the fish within her poetic writing as evidenced by the constant alliteration with “f” letter words including, “first fish”, “flailed” , “flesh”, “fall”, “feed”, and “feverish”, which give the image that the poem is alive and is the fish.
...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.
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
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"
...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.
Although this section is the easiest to read, it sets up the action and requires the most "reading between the lines" to follow along with the quick and meaningful happenings. Millay begins her poem by describing, in first person, the limitations of her world as a child. She links herself to these nature images and wonders about what the world is like beyond the islands and mountains. The initial language and writing style hint at a child-like theme used in this section. This device invites the reader to sit back and enjoy the poem without the pressure to understand complex words and structure.
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.
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.
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.