Water Picture
by:May Swenson
In the pond in the park all things are doubled: Long buildings hang and wriggle gently. Chimneys are bent legs bouncing on clouds below. A flag wags like a fishhook down there in the sky. The arched stone bridge is an eye, with underlid in the water. In its lens dip crinkled heads with hats that don't fall off. Dogs go by, barking on their backs. A baby, taken to feed the ducks, dangles upside-down, a pink balloon for a buoy. Treetops deploy a haze of cherry bloom for roots, where birds coast belly-up in the glass bowl of a hill; from its bottom a bunch of peanut-munching children is suspended by their sneakers, waveringly. A swan, with twin necks forming the figure 3, steers between two dimpled towers doubled. Fondly hissing, she kisses herself, and all the scene is troubled: water-windows splinter, tree-limbs tangle, the bridge folds like a fan.
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ReplyDeleteIf I could, I would copy and paste this whole poem if I were asked which was my favorite part. It creates a perfect image of innocence and purity. It reminds me of my childhood when my world was untouched by corruption and pain. But looking at the title of this poem, it's just a moment captured and forever preserved in nothing but a picture. And that moment exists in a perfect little world we all wish we could live in where no harm would ever come to us.
ReplyDeleteThe arched stone bridge is an eye, with underlid in the water.
ReplyDeleteThis line right here is my favorite line because I get a desent image out of this. The line talks about how you the reflection of a circle in the pond but in a more creative way. The whole poem is talking about just a simple day in a pond but it's describe with so many images. May Swenson made something more bigger than it really is.
"A swan, with twin necks forming the figure 3, steers between two dimpled towers doubled."
ReplyDeleteBased an the title and all the imagery in it this is my favortie part to imagine. I can relate this line to when I see swans or capture the beautiful moments of animals in the water, whether I'm driving by them, or walking past them. This poem reminds me of an exotic, magnificent painting thanks to the title "water picture." I don't think of it as a water painting, I think of it as a picture or painting about things that surround the body of water.
"water-windows splinter, tree-limbs tangle, the bridge folds like a fan."
ReplyDeleteThe whole purpose I found in this poem is to provide an image and in my opinion this is the most powerful. First the whole poem to me seems kind of happy and then suddenly everything changes and breaks or folds. I also enjoy it because I can clearly image all of this happening. All in all, I like the dark side of this line as to me it demonstrates pain and turning fro happy to sad.
A swan, with twin necks
ReplyDeleteforming the figure 3,
steers between two dimpled
towers doubled. Fondly
hissing, she kisses herself,
and all the scene is troubled:
water-windows splinter,
tree-limbs tangle, the bridge
folds like a fan.
i like the whole last verse of this poem. It ties everything together in such a organized manner. Plus the imagery in this verse is very clear. It shows that when the swan went to kiss herself (her reflection in the water) that everything got ruined because of that. Trees tangle, and stuff. etc i love the imagery in this poem.