The Centaur Essay Example

with her creation, a bliss which no regular person could feel or understand; the bliss of being a centaur.

While on her horse ride the little girl has nothing else on her mind other than what lies in front of the dusty path that she is trotting on. “I’d straddle and canter him fast/ up the grass bank to the path, / trot along in the lovely dust/ that talcumed over his hoofs, / hiding my toes, and turning/ his feet to swift half-moons” (lines 17-22). The writer hints throughout the poem of a day that is accommodated by gentle breezes and a beautiful dusk sunset on a summer day.

The description of such a day is inclined towards what most persons acknowledge to be a “beautiful” day, further promoting the feeling and tone of pure bliss in the poem. The author takes the girl and her horse through a full blown horse ride all the way from “a gallop along the bank” (line 42) to “negligent riding” (line 46). She even goes as far as parking the horse, “I tethered him to a paling/ dismounting” (lines 50-51). Swenson’s use of imagery is what makes the poem so powerful and easy to visualize for the reader.

The poem continues through the speakers usage of imagery in lines (6-8) “I’d go out to choose/ a fresh horse from my stable/ which was a willow grove/ down by the old canal”. At this point in the poem the reader takes a noticing to the fact that her “stable of horses,” which she picks a horse from is in actuality a grove of willows by

some old canals. Through this usage of imagery the reader can also understand how she made her horse; the imagery though is what actually brings this creation to life in the poem. Her imagery is very in depth especially when describing how the girl imagines herself to appear during the ride. The willow knob with the strap/ jouncing between my thighs/ was the pommel and yet the poll/ of my nickering pony’s head” (line 23-26). Similarly, in lines 27-28 “My head and my neck were mine, / yet they were shaped like a horse,” the author uses a simile in addition to creating clearer images and pictures in the mind of the reader. The author begins to really hint that the young girl is actually a part of her fictional horse by going into deeper detail in how the girl envisions herself, “My hair flopped to the side/ like the mane of a horse in the wind”.

The imagery keeps becoming more and more concrete to the fact that she is one with her willow crafted horse as the poem progresses until she actually states through a metaphor that the girl was one with the horse and that her feeling of bliss had reached its climax, “I was the horse and the rider” (line 38). Finally the author ends the poem with the girls’ arrival home from her journey that summer day. “At the walk we drew up to the porch. Dismounting, I smoothed my skirt/ and entered the dusky hall” .

During that moment the girl’s mother starts a small dialogue with er daughter where she says the following: “Where have you

been? Said my mother” (line 55). By adding a dialogue, Swenson makes her poem sounding quite narrative. In addition, the dialogue portrays the type of personality the girl has which seems much like a childs; carefree and good-natured. It is obvious that the child is attempting to break out from reality through her thoughts and ideas. Particularly towards the end her mother’s questioning about her mouth being green; leads to an attention-grabbing answer which states, “Rob Ray, he pulled some clover as we crossed the field, I told her” .

The last line of the poem has a great affect now that we know that she named her fictional stallion Rob Ray. As a result, the language used within the poem seems to have a very easy flow to the reader without any rhyme to them at all. May Swenson’s careful choice of various elements such as language, imagery and structure complete the meaning in the composition because all the elements included make a big part of the characters actions.