Crossing The Swamp Mary Oliver

755 Words4 Pages
“Crossing The Swamp” by Mary Oliver When it comes to reading poetry, the works of Mary Oliver have always intrigued me. Her literal style of diction inspires vast articles of imagery engulfing the reader in many different rhetorical devices and adjectives; Regardless, in my paper I intend on establishing the majority of these techniques, along with their effect on the readers perception of what the author, Mary Oliver, in the way only she could have meant for them to be expressed. We will discuss the effects of diction usage and how it relates to the imagery portrayed in the poem. Oliver begins her first sentence with an allusion to "The nugget"; "The endless wet thick cosmos, the center of everything-the nugget." this reference to the swamp actually serves as a metaphor of the author's character's life being portrayed in the poem. The spacing provides for a pause, which allows the reader to experience the full suspense being set forth by the author. An excellent example of aposiopesis, which initiates feelings of restraint.(Honestly it just helps me catch my breath between the tedious amounts of words per line.) This eerie tone continues thru-ought the poem to inflict that distinct sense of swampy awareness. As I pass through lines five I am captivated once again by this wetlands sense being established by the imagery used by Oliver. "Dense sap, branching vines, the dark burred faintly belching bogs." earthy diction, picked precisely so that the reader reacts; positively or negatively, which ultimately depends upon the reader. Personification is a clear indication of this relationship between writer and reader; "faintly belching bogs." Belching, a personal quality, adds to the tone of the poem to provide a consistent human to earth, natural theme. Signs of alliteration are

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