Sound in Poetry- Morning Swim

 

    In Maxine Kumin's poem, "Morning Swim", there is a song-like quality to the reading that there is not in many poems. The stanzas in the poem are arranged into couplets containing either a true rhyme or slant rhyme like "out" and "mouth". while these do not follow the pattern of the the true rhyme, they do not break up the rhythm because they still share the vowel. 

    There are several enjambments that break up the lines, and I figure this is done to keep a steady rhythm and avoid the natural pause one would make at the end of a line. The poem puts a certain emphasis on the hymn, Abide with Me, which the narrator "hummed in two-four time". This is significant because the poem is written in such away that it could be spoken in 2/4 time. Kumin maintains that beat with 4 stressed syllables in each line throughout the whole poem. By speaking the poem one must create the beat using the stressed syllables, creating a euphonious nature that teeters on song. 

    Using the beat created by the consonant syllables, the reader must continue reading unbroken, as any sway from this pattern would slow down the tongue. The song of the whole poem gives it a dreamlike quality, and an elegant ease with which it can be spoken (like the flow of water). 

 Using this line we can see the stressed syllables create a beat:

"Invaded and invader, I

went overhand on that flat sky."

In-VAD ed-AND in-VAD er-I