SOURCE: "Life's Miracles: The Poetry of May Swenson," in American Poetry Review, Vol. 23, No. 5, September/October, 1994, pp. 9-13.

In the following essay, Schulman explores Swenson's treatment of the themes of life, love, and death in her poetry.

The voice of May Swenson combines the directness of intimate speech and the urgency of prayer:

     Body my house
     my horse my hound
     what will I do
     when you are fallen
 
     Where will I sleep
     How will I ride
     What will I hunt
 
     Where can I go
     without my mount …

The magic of that lament, "Question," from Another Animal (1954), is in its contrasts: while the details are specific, the central situation is a mystery that terrifies with each new speculation. Here as elsewhere in her poems, Swenson dwells on the living body with an immediacy that heightens the dread of its loss. Other gestures that recur in Swenson's poetry are the...