Nicole Vaz

Period 2

Mr. Montenegro

Crossing the Swamp

Mary Oliver’s vibrant poem “Crossing the Swamp” explores

the centric meanings of struggles in life that may emotionally

take into great part of development, but also must be surpassed

over the course of one’s cycle. Relying on literary elements

such as symbolism, metaphors, and personification, Oliver

reveals a confined state of mind that works as an accurate

demonstration of her accomplished life.

Oliver begins the poem with the depicted details of the

symbolism that is portrayed throughout the poem. In lines 3-4,

the swamp contains in abundance of allusions “cosmos, the

center/ of everything-” in which it serves as a symbol of the

author’s past, a place where everything was settled and at a

peaceful state that foreshadowed an upcoming shift not only in

the next few lines of the poem, but also an abrupt shift in the

author’s life. This suggests that the overall aspect of the

swamp holds truths that although may appear coherent and

concrete, the swamp is inferred to be a hardship the speaker

must overcome the enemy with faith by friendship. Lines 10-11

“struggle, closure” and particular adjectives in the following

lines 12 and 13 “pathless, seamless” and “peerless,” emphasize

how Oliver establishes that the future obstacles that take over

her, take an emotional hold of her to further encompass how her

tangible choice of words interprets a deeper meaning where the

reader is forced to sympathize with the speaker’s unbalance in

life because of the challenges the swamp has encountered her to

face. Similarly, the continuous structure formulates the overall

theme of the poem throughout each of the lines. The irregular

lineage creates a drastic emotional appeal to the reader in

which Oliver intends to impose on us. The use of enjambment also

occurs primarily throughout the poem but lines 21-22 “into the

black, slack/earthsoup. I feel” express the stacked feelings the

speaker shares with the swamp. The inconclusive sentences

justify the process it takes to get to the blossoming of a new

person by the end of the poem. Because the author relies on

such disparate syntax, readers are manipulated to see the

significance of how the swamp is explicitly the

“endless-struggles' ' both in a mental and physical regard.

After describing her course in life then represented by the

swamp, lines 16-17 indicates an expression of signs in distress

as she continues to appeal to her weaknesses though her journey

in life by listing the physical sensations, “trying for

foothold, fingerhold, mindhold over” the intrusive thoughts that

get ahead of her consciousness. Lines 5-8, the words “dense,”

“dark,” and “belching” create the initial problems causing the

speaker to lose hope in surpassing her challenges. This implies

that the metaphorical interpretation Oliver has over the swamp

is being described as her friend, yet at the same time, it is

her greatest enemy, a meaning that Oliver proves by implicitly

battling the implied enemy as it had been founded by the “deep

hipholes” and “hummocks.”

This intimate poem by Oliver relies much on the figurative

language that is dispersed in the poem between lines. The device

used in lines 28-31 Oliver’s is a vivid personification of the

swamp: “a poor/dry stick given/ one more chance by the whims/of

swamp water…” The traits that characterize the swamp in turn,

suggest that just how literal swamps are given “one more chance”

by support from “succulent marrows,” it also works in the same

way in the relationship between the speaker and the swamp. The

speaker undeniably credits the swamp for being her partial

friend; however, despite its challenges, Oliver hints that the

opportunities given in life are to be just as appreciated, such

as the way that the swamp is brought to life to give hope to the

speaker regardless of humanly mistakes and failed attempts to

universal struggles. Hence this closing metaphor in line 20

established Oliver’s perception on the accountability she relies

on life’s advantages despite what most people tend to do of

“sink[ing] silently” in the trenches of the “mud,” figuratively

speaking, of the foreshadowing closure to life cycles. There is

an immense amount of description that actively shows readers

these challenges serve as a “void-filler” that can be

interpreted in the way the “mud” can be turned into a new life,

a statement most readers find to struggle and is attempted to be

resolved by the critiques Oliver imposes on herself as a

speaker; it forces us to consider that there is still a long

profounding chance every individual is granted.

Oliver’s meek vision of the fundamentals of life-a

picturesque illusion that reveals a regretful tone- as she

realizes that time cannot be wasted in focusing on sinkholes of

the mud (life). The published poem of “Crossing the Swamp”

expresses an idealistic view that not only Oliver presents to

view, but also as a whole society of every individual.