Swan and Shadow

In the poem “Swan and Shadow,” John Hollander makes use of several visual images in order to emphasize the beauty and meaning of his poem. Some of the phrases seem broken, such as, “No of water Or something across / Breaking up No Being regathered,” but these phrases seem to imitate the startle of wings when a swan is preparing to take flight, which could be at any moment. The capitalization of certain words shows the …

…imitated by the juxtaposition of phrases into a swan and its reflection, alone and beautiful. It even says that the swan leaves the “vast pale hush of a place.” The placing of the words also serves to imitate a call-and-response technique, answering the questions what, when, and where. The surreal feeling of not being certain about anything parallels with the ripples and blurriness of the reflection, with the dreamlike beauty of the swan’s swim.