Alex Ferguson

3
rd
Period
Poetry Timed Essay
The poet uses various techniques to develop the relationship between the speaker and the
swamp. A technique that was used is an extended metaphor. The poet makes a metaphor about
how the swamp resembles life.
The poet describes the swamp with great detail saying Here in the endless wet thick
cosmos, the center of everything the nugget of dense sap, branching vines, the dark burred
faintly belching bogs. This gives you a great image of the swamp and you think of this boggy
place with a number of obstacles you have to overcome to pass through. The poet also describes
the speakers journey through the swamp and how his bones knock together at the pale joints,
trying for foothold, fingerhold, mindhold over such slick crossings. This shows how the speaker
has a hard time getting through the swamp, giving it his all to make it through. Life, just like the
swamp, can be tough to get through with all the challenges you must overcome.
Not only does the poet speak of the challenges of crossing the swamp and the challenges
of life, they also speak of the good things in the swamp and in life. The poet demonstrates the
good things in the swamp by saying I feel not wet so much as painted and glitters with the fat
grassy mires, the rich and succulent marrows of earth a poor dry stick given one more chance
by the whims of swamp water a bough that still, after all these years, could take root, branch
out, bud make of its life a breathing palace of leaves. This shows how the speaker is not
disappointed with the swamp but treasures it like a gift and how great and beautiful things can
happen in life.
The poet uses the extended metaphor to show how swamp is like life and how as the
speaker passes through the swamp, he does not dislike the swamp, but cherishes it and life. The
Alex Ferguson
3
rd
Period
speaker goes through the swamp and finds it to be challenging like life, but an essential part of it
and is necessary and it should be cherished.