Although the connection between a swamp and life may not seem relevant, Mary Oliver creates a scene of a treacherous swamp alluding to the hardships in life. In Crossing the Swamp, Oliver uses structure, tone, and imagery to describe the crossing of a swamp and its parallelism to the life's struggles. The Oliver's structure guides the readers through the swamp cautious as if the swamp really is dangerous. The swamp is described as "endless" in the beginning. This is obviously meant in a negative connotation. She then reaffirms her descriptions from the beginning and says "here is swamp, here is struggle". She writes as if life is only full of negatives and it is hopeless to continue through the dense terrain. Then Oliver attempts
