“Crossing The Swamp” by Mary Oliver Essay

The poem, Crossing the Swamp is a swell nonionized work of literature, which uses some techniques to develop the relationship mingled with the speaker and the douse. rough of these techniques include vocabulary, narrative structure, repetition, imagery, personification, tonal shift, as well as many interesting sound devices.Before the scrutinizing search for the figurative language begins, the first-year thing that is noticeable is the narrative structure. The speaker provides us with the image of the characters footsteps itself by means of the structure of the poem, which indicates the struggle that he is going through by the gaps and indents throughout.Because of the advertent syntax of the poem, we cannot refer the body as stanzas or paragraphs thus, the poem itself is star broken stanza which includes the characters adventurous journey and appalled misery. At the beginning of the poem, (line 5), the rasping sounds like branching, burred, belching bogs are used to desc ribe the ugly sounds of the inundate as the character takes a step forward. The repetition of Here is similarly very unique because it is emphasizing the location of where the character is being tormented by having to walk into this ruthless swamp.The sound devices include consonance and calendar method of birth control with the repetition of the end sounds of pathless, seamless, and peerless. The foothold, fingerhold, mindhold can be consonance as well as alliteration, as foothold and fingerhold both begin with the same sound. alliteration also presents itself in lines 18 and 19 with such slick and hipholes, hummocks. there is another cacophonic sound in lines 21 and 22 as the speaker describes the image of the swamp with hatred, calling it a black, slack earthsoup. This diction will also be considered as imagery as it compares the swamp with earthsoup.The tonal shift in the poem begins on line 22, with the strong belief I feel not wet so much as painted and glittered From th is point on, the speaker doesnt sound as frustrated and awful as he was in the beginning of the poem. He finally feels aspirer and thankful to have another chance to live. The narrator also provides us with the description of the speaker, a poor drystick, which tells the reader that the character is an old, slight being, trying to cross this swamp that he gets angry at in the beginning but now is finally appreciative.In conclusion, the relationship between the speaker and the swamp is of struggle. It seems like they both are fighting with to each one other to belittle the other and consume victory, but finally they give-up the ghost in to each others needs. The swamp lets the old man go, and he give thanks the swamp heartily. The connection between them is of stubbornness and struggle, as well as understanding at the end.