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Anna Shanks

Mrs. Floyd

English 8-2

10 February 2022

Life and Use of Figurative Language in “my enemy was dreaming” and “Swift Things

Are Beautiful”

The use of figurative language in poetry can bring strong interest, and it is hard to find a

poem without it. What do the poems “my enemy was dreaming” by Norman Russell and “Swift

Things Are Beautiful'' by Elizabeth Coatsworth have in common? Perhaps the themes of life or

the use of enjambment are possible answers to this question. Comparing poems can help people

to obtain a better grasp of the themes and messages of said poems. Both Coatsworth and Russell

use figurative language in their poems to convey important parts and hidden messages. The

poems “my enemy was dreaming” and “Swift Things Are Beautiful” are highly different at first

glance, but upon further analysis, notable similarities begin to arise in bulk.

To begin with, the differences between “my enemy was dreaming” and “Swift Things

Are Beautiful” are quite abundant when first analyzing them. “my enemy was dreaming” is a

narrative poem that tells a story about the speaker's decision to spare his enemy, while “Swift

Things Are Beautiful” is a descriptive and comparative poem about life and death and their

connections to fast and slow things. Coatsworth wrote her poem during the

Romantic/Transcendentalist period, whereas Russell wrote it during the Modernist period. In her

poem, Coatsworth writes, “The closing of day/The pause of the wave/That curves downward to
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spray” which is descriptive and contains characteristics of the Romantic/Transcendentalist period

(lines 10-13). The Romantic/Transcendentalist period is a period in which many poets wrote

nature poems, as well as many other defining characteristics. In “my enemy was dreaming”,

Russell writes, “only i will have this memory/i will show the others” which is an example of

narrative and storytelling in the poem (lines 11-12). In the above quotation from “my enemy was

dreaming”, the use of only lowercase letters is a common element in the Modernist Era.

Although the different periods and other prevalent differences previously discussed do

make a strong stand in the relationship of the poems, the similarities shine through when

examined. The two poems share a similar idea that every small detail is greater than the larger

picture. For example, “my enemy was dreaming'' was written during the Vietnam War, and the

author was very anti-war. Russell's ideals are reflected in the poem when he writes “i raised my

knife to kill him/then i saw my enemy was dreaming” (line 6-7). The same concept is also shown

in “Swift Things Are Beautiful” where there are examples of many different natural items and

phenomena. For instance, Coatsworth writes, “Rivers and meteors/Wind in the wheat/The

strong-withered horse/ The runner’s sure feet”, which describes multiple “swift” things, hence

the name of the poem (lines 5-8). Both poems also entail themes of life and the joy of life.

As well as being similar in themes of life and ideals, the writing and use of figurative

language in both poems are also essential to note. Some examples of figurative language that are

used in both poems are repetition and alliteration. Alliteration is used when Russell writes, “he

made small sleep sounds” (line 9). The “s” sound in small, sleep, and sounds is alliteration gives

the poem a hushed tone. In “Swift Things Are Beautiful” Coatsworth writes “wind in the wheat”

(line 6), which also has alliteration in the “w” sound. Enjambment, or when a sentence or
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thought is carried on through multiple lines, is also used in both poems to make the stanzas flow

better. Examples of this are when Coatsworth writes “Swift things are beautiful:/Swallows and

deer” (lines 1-2), and when Russell writes, “when i found my enemy sleeping/i stood over him

and still/as the owl at night”.

In conclusion, Russell and Coatsworth’s poems may not correlate with each other due to

differences in theme and periods they were written in, but they do have similar, beautiful traits.

They both use literary devices in similar ways to improve the general tone of the poem. They

also both have comparable themes and messages. From comparing and contrasting poetry, more

can be learned about the effect poetry has on the world, and how truly beautiful differences can

be.

Works Cited
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Russell, Norman. “my enemy was dreaming.” 1921-2011. Print.

Coatsworth, Elizabeth. “Swift Things Are Beautiful” 1893-1986. Print.