The poet, Mary Oliver, makes every effort to get through” the center of everything” in her poem Crossing the Swamp. Oliver uses literary devices to show her love/hate relationship with the unclear path through the “pathless, seamless” swamp. As claimed by Frederick Douglass, “without a struggle there can be no progress.” In the beginning, Mary reveals that the swamp is essential to her by stating that the swamp is “the center of everything.” Right off the bat she lets the readers know that the swamp is going to be a significant part in her story. The poet then goes on with her written work using alliteration. Mary states, “The nugget of dense sap, branching vines, the dark burred faintly belching bogs.” While alliterating the letter “b”, vividly enlightening how the swamp looks, Mary indirectly explains that the swamp is a …show more content…
The tone of the poem at first seemed to be a dark, frightened piece that explained Oliver’s journey through the swamp, but the poem now exemplifies optimism. Mary Oliver states, “I feel not wet so much as painted and glittered with the fat grassy mires.” By means of a simile she expresses how going through the swamp turned out to be a blissful practice in contrast to it being a frightful feeling. Lastly, Oliver expresses that she is a “dry stick” that “after all these years could take root, sprout, branch out, bud- make of its life a breathing place of leaves.” While personifying that she is a stick with a life, the poet finally has gotten aid in the poem, and can flourish into what it seems to be a stunning tree. In the poem Crossing the Swamp, Mary Oliver transcribes about her as a stick going through a mystical swamp while being terrified of the outcome. As she goes on through the poem Oliver realizes the swamp is not as petrifying as it seems, but a tonic wetland that allows her to bloom. Many people get serenity from beautiful scenery such as sunsets in the meadow, Mary gets hers from a