Have you ever tried crossing a swamp? Well I have and I struggled to get through it and once I got out of it felt dirty and smelt malodorous. The poet of ,“Crossing the Swamp”, uses a lot of symbolism to make things stand out more than about the geography of the swamp and finally the most interesting thing my opinion is how she uses irony to describe how she feels. Symbolism comes into play when she is talking about the “foot hold, finger hold, mind hold over such slick crossings” The finger holds and foot holds are literally used to physically move yourself forward. While the mind holds is the most symbolic because if you can’t mentally move on you’re going nowhere even if you are physically capable. Then “one more chance by the whims of swamp water” To the swamp is this case seems to be representing the universe. Since many people consider the universe to control destiny so therefore if the swamp can control …show more content…
For example “branching vines, the dark burred faintly belching bogs”. This creates a rather dark and sorrowful image in the readers mind. It represents hopelessness. “Sink silently into the black, slack earth soup.” This quote talks about her being lost in the swamp and likely lost in real life. Then she appeals to our own senses by letting us know she can’t find anything to help her move forward in the swamp. The irony comes when the author says, “I feel not wet so much as painted and glittered with fat grassy mires, the rich and succulent marrows of earth.” She is saying that after going through the swamp and her ordeal, and even though she likely to be considered dirty she feels beautiful. Usually when we have dirt and grass on us we don’t consider ourselves beautiful. Then she points out “a poor dry stick given one more chance by the whims of the swamp”. The irony in this quote lay in that the stick seems to have taken her place on being stuck and getting ready to embark or some great