“Swan and Shadow” by American poet John Hollander (1929-2013) is a calligram, a poem whose visual layout resembles its subject. In this case, the poem is lineated and arranged to resemble a swan and its reflection in water. Among Hollander’s most anthologized poems, “Swan and Shadow” is considered a technical achievement, combining a strict, closed form with lyrical and descriptive poetic language. This poem is included in Types of Shape (1969), Hollander’s second collection of poems, which consists entirely of calligrams. Writing in the tradition of Welsh poet George Herbert, Hollander reinvents the calligram in the contemporary context in Types of Shape.

Hollander is counted amongst the most significant American poets of the 20th and 21st centuries. Although a relatively early work, “Swan and Shadow” reflects many of the characteristic themes and motifs of Hollander’s poetry, such as a meditative tone, an emphasis on form, and a preoccupation with echoes and shadows. Though the poem is highly structured, it also experiments with form: There is no punctuation in the poem, and capitalizations are sporadic. “Swan and Shadow” thus reflects the uniqueness of Hollander’s poetry, which is difficult to categorize as solely traditional or postmodernist.

Poet Biography

Noted American poet, critic, and editor John Hollander was born on October 28, 1929 in Manhattan to Muriel and Franklin Hollander. Muriel, a teacher, and Franklin, a physiologist, were Jewish immigrants of Polish and Czech descent. While attending the Bronx High School for Science, Hollander began showing a keen interest in writing witty reports and reported pieces. He went on to study English at Columbia University, where he found literary inspiration in his professor Lionel Trilling and peers like the poet Allen Ginsberg. At Columbia, Hollander also started writing poetry. Writing journalistic essays and notes on classical music to support himself, Hollander went on to earn a PhD from Indiana University. In 1953, Hollander married the historian Anne Loesser, with whom he had twin daughters Elizabeth and Martha.

Hollander joined Connecticut College as a lecturer in English in 1957. By this time, he began to publish his poetry in literary journals. His first book of poems A Crackling of Thorns was selected for publication by the poet W. H. Auden in the Yale Series of Younger Poets. The book established Hollander as a major emerging poetic voice, an impression cemented by Visions from the Ramble (1965) and Types of Shape (1969). Technical innovations with formal poetry became a hallmark of Hollander’s work. Though technically formidable, his poems have an easy speak-aloud quality. Even while delving into deep intellectual questions, Hollander’s poetry is always accessible. Hollander published 20 collections of poetry, including Powers of Thirteen (1983), Tesserae (1993) and his last collection, A Draft of Light (2008).

Along with poems, Hollander also wrote seven important works of literary criticism. One of his most famous critical works is Rhyme’s Reason (1981), in which he describes different poetic forms using the respective form itself (the description of the sonnet would itself be in the form of a sonnet). Hollander won many honors for his contribution to poetry and criticism, including the Bollingen Prize (1983), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1979), and a grant from the MacArthur Foundation (1990).

Hollander divorced Loesser in 1977 and married the visual artist Natalie Charkow in 1981. The couple eventually settled in Bradford, Connecticut. After teaching at Connecticut College, the City University of New York, and Hunter College, among others, Hollander was appointed the Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, a position he held until his death. Hollander died on August 17, 2013 at the age of 83 because of pulmonary congestion. In an obituary of Hollander, the poet J. D. McClatchy stated: "It is said of a man like John Hollander that when he dies it is like the burning of the library at Alexandria."

Poem Text

Hollander, John. “Swan and Shadow.” 1966. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The setting of the poem is a lake or a similar body of water at dusk. An unnamed narrator observes the scene. The narrator notes that flies hover over the water, making a loud noise. Then “[a] pale signal” (Line 10), or a glowing light, appears in the dark. The narrator knows this signal will disappear soon, before its reflection in the water dissolves. The mysterious object seems to be present in multiple places for the speaker: on the surface of the water; in its reflection in water; in its image captured by the speaker’s eye; and finally, in the mind. It is in the mind that the object will take shape, or gain recognition as a swan. Its image will awaken “ripples of recognition” (Line 16), which means the mind will process that the thing being seen is a swan. However, hardly will the mind have recognized the swan, that the bird will disappear out of view, swimming away. The bird and the hour will vanish, their appearance constituting a “perfect sad instant now” (Line 18).

The swan is “already passing out of sight” (Line 19), leaving behind only its trailing reflection, which too soon passes. The swan’s reflected image is first steady (“yet-untroubled”: Line 20), but as the swan swims away, the reflection too begins to darken and break up. Soon, the swan and its shadow will exist only as “memorial shades” (Line 22) or memories. As the image in the water begins to scatter and lose its shape, the speaker can’t tell if the scattered bits of the reflection are water, light, or some other substance. The ripples of the fading reflection seem to dissolve and regroup at the same time. The swan and its reflection disappear completely, even from the mind, it seems to the speaker. The speaker wonders where the swan and its reflection went. The place where they disappear is a “vast / pale / hush” (Lines 27-29), or an unknown, silent place. Both the unknown place in which the swan has disappeared and the lakeside setting are now blank and dark. The swan’s disappearance has left the sudden darkness one feels when something significant has ended.