Swan and Shadow

The poem is written in a structured form intended to replicate the shape of a swan floating on water and its reflection. Thus, the line lengths vary from one word to 15 words. The space between words and phrases varies because of the poem’s visual structure. The poem is written in free verse and does not follow regular meter. Its musicality comes from the absence of punctuation (with words flowing into each other), lyrical language, repetition, call-and-response, and internal and occasional rhyme. For example, consider the lines: “soon Yet by then a swan will have / gone Yes out of mind into what / vast / pale / hush / of a / place / past” (Lines 25-32). Here, “vast” rhymes with “past,” and there is alliteration in “pale,” “place,” and “past.” Other examples of alliteration occur with the repeated “wh” sound in “What A pale signal will appear / When Soon before its shadow fades / Where Here in this pool of opened eye” (Lines 10-12), and the stressed “r” sound in the phrase “ripples of recognition” (Line 16).