Poetic Devices In Crossing The Swamp

Aileen Chavarria English 240 March 18, 2017 Poetry Reading Response “In the Station of the Metro” is an imagist poem and it’s structured to convey a specific mental image through precise description. “Crossing the Swamp” doesn’t follow a certain scheme but instead focuses on certain phrases within the zigzag formation it’s written in. Both structures work for their individual poem because Ezra Pound uses exact description to get a subtle concept across while Mary Oliver uses descriptive language to make the swamp come alive and instill a similar state of mind that the author goes through as the poem progresses.

In these five works youth is seen in a different light; a light that is not always innocent. Through personal experiences, we are molded to how we see the world. The experiences in our youth are therefore even more important as they are the foundation of our perspective. For example, growing up wealthy is different than growing up in poverty. This shows that youth is complex and has many sides to it.

“He looks both ways and then leaps across the road where riches happen on a red tongue”(34-38). The metaphor used shows how unsatisfied the brown person, the daughter, and the father are in their life. This poem clearly depicts how some people in the world live in poor conditions and have unhappy lives. The poem doesn’t only show hatred and sadness in life in impoverishment, but it also shows how you can get out by perseverance like Gary Soto did in his personal life through literature and hard

This is seen in “ I listened to the man from 1194 and knew that he was making the time up as he went along”. The protagonist is soon traumatised by the death of Alan Mannering and is psychologically affected by the guilt he feels as if he was the reason of Alan’s death. The swamp was the most prominent place in the entire suburb and was a well attracted place. The swamp symbolises wonder, freedom, adventure and guilt and growing up.

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be” (Buckmaster, Heath). This quote portrays how humans need to go through a process of self realization in order to change, or at least acknowledge their faults. As seen in the novel Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé, Francis Sancher, the protagonist, is found dead, and each supporting character recounts his/her experience with him through vignettes. As a result, Maryse Condé explores the idea that foreign and unfamiliar influences can overcome personal blindness and result in the self realization of the necessity for personal growth through the use of personification, similes, and questions within vignettes

In her poem, “Crossing the Swamp,” Mary Oliver uses vivid diction, symbolism, and a tonal shift to illustrate the speaker’s struggle and triumph while trekking through the swamp; by demonstrating the speaker’s endeavors and eventual victory over nature, Oliver conveys the beauty of the triumph over life’s obstacles, developing the theme of the necessity of struggle to experience success. Oliver uses descriptive diction throughout her poem to vividly display the obstacles presented by the swamp to the reader, creating a dreary, almost hopeless mood that will greatly contrast the optimistic tone towards the end of the piece. While describing the thicket of swamp, Oliver uses world like “dense,” “dark,” and “belching,” equating the swamp to “slack earthsoup.” This diction develops Oliver’s dark and depressing tone, conveying the hopelessness the speaker feels at this point in his journey due to the obstacles within the swamp. As the speaker eventually overcomes these obstacles, he begins to use words like “sprout,” and “bud,” alluding to new begins and bright futures.

As if she was held there against her own will, she uses the word fast to signify that she was eager to leave. Gravitating towards a natural setting, she could appease her endless curiosity of what truly mattered to her. The garden is placed in between the schoolhouse and the forest to exemplify her transition between the controlled, man-made school and the unregimented forest. The forest provides a place of freedom of the mind, which often leads to curiosity. Broken up into short phrases, in stanza 2 Oliver creates a list of what she spent all summer trying to forget, “...how to be modest and useful, and how to succeed and so forth,

Mary Oliver’s works were influenced from the characteristics of this time period in history and the evidence of romanticism is evident throughout her poems. During this era, romanticism had a focal point on a deep appreciation for the true beauty of nature. Oliver’s physical inspiration for nature came from the “wooded, pond-studded acres that surround her house.” (Gregory) Poets get their

Device: Diction — refers to the author’s word choice, especially regarding correctness, clearness, or effectiveness. Example: “There are cooters and snappers, opossum, coon and gar.” (AP Section II, Passage 2) Context: The author of Passage 2 describes the Okefenokee Swamp. In contrast to the first Passage, this passage is emotional and informal; through many literary devices, the passage communicates the wildness and hostility of the swamp, describing it as “leaf-choked” and “sodden”, filled with “seething galaxies” of bugs (AP Section II).

Within the excerpt Life on the Mississippi, the author Mark Twain, applies imagery in order to portray how his perspective towards his surrounding environment gradually altered as he began to truly contemplate and identify the Mississippi River. By first scrutinizing his surroundings the author emphasizes the magnificence of the river as this was his initial outlook towards the river. This perspective ultimately diminishes as a result of the speaker comprehending the true connotation of the Mississippi River. Nonetheless, the author questions whether acquiring knowledge can truly benefit an individual or impede one from being open-minded to their surroundings. Twains initial depiction of the Mississippi River is quite positive as conveys

The author uses figurative language like metaphor and repetition to determine the theme ofin the poem. For example, “Don’t you fall now” In line 17 the author explains to never give up in life. You need another analyis sentence Another example, “And splinters And boards torn up And places with no carpet on the floor” Lines 4-6 can be interpreted to mean that there are many obstacles in your life you will encounter. You

When people are traumatized by an event they are pushed to experience the five stages of grief. The “Gospel”, by Philip Levine and “the boy detective loses love”, by Sam Sax both use characters that are going through one of the stages of grief. Levine and Sax both explain the thoughts and process of what a person thinks when they go through these stages with imagery. Levine uses symbolism, a sad tone, and a set setting in “Gospel” to illustrate that grieving takes you into a depth of thoughts. Sax uses anaphoras, an aggressive tone, and an ambiguous setting to convey that grieving takes you into a tunnel of anger and rage.

The possible metaphor of how a flood devastates a village could be compared to how the new Europeans pushed the Native Americans out of their homelands and sent them farther west. Even though this is a thing of the past, the true meaning of this poem could still be applied today. Everyone’s beliefs, values, and traditions are not all the same, and there will never be only one that everyone would agree to, but everyone’s way of life should be respected. Forcing the Native Americans out and killing them if they resisted prevented the preservation of ideas, which means that invaluable information and new ideas were also lost in the process. In the present day, we know how inhumane that was, but we should know that individuality is a very key aspect of our life and is something that we should

This farm has a beautiful pasture with barns and huckleberry bushes. This pasture back up to a “forest of sturdy trees, pines and oaks and maples” (Jewett, 305). A little dirt road that is framed with trees goes through the pasture and into the woods. The forest has a swamp on the side farthest from their home that connects with the pasture. This swamp had “bright green swamp grass” (Jewett, 302) It's where “the sunshine always seemed strangely yellow and hot, where tall, nodding rushes grew”

From there the reader can imagine the setting. As I read this poem and imagine the setting: an average ranch house, made of adobe, with a large porch cluttered with some cheap green lawn chairs facing the fields. I can see the tumbleweeds and dirt surrounding the