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“The Black Swan” from The Black Swan (1946) and First Poems (1951) Black on flat water past the jonquil lawns. Riding, the black swan draws. A private chaos warbling in its wake, Assuming, like a fourth dimension, splendor. That calls the child with white ideas of swans. Nearer to that green lake. Where every paradox means wonder.
From The Black Swan (1946) through A Scattering of Salts (1995), he wrote twelve books of poems, ten of them published in trade editions, as well as The Changing Light at Sandover (1982).
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The speaker's transformation from a young girl into a swan parallels the transition from innocence to experience, as she comes to understand the complexities of life and the pain of loss. The poem differs from Jarrell's other works in its use of a female protagonist and its focus on the themes of transformation and loss.
“The Black Swan” was written after the nineteen-year old Merrill returned to Amherst College in 1945 after serving in the army for eight months. He first published the poem in his college’s literary magazine Medusa (Fall 1945), which Merrill coedited with William Buford.
Merrill names the black swan, “the Enchanter.”. It appears to a child who has been accustomed to the white Cygnus and has never had the shock (and transformation) of seeing the Enchanter’s dark vision before. Poetry has often been called the Art of Naming.
THE BLACK SWAN AND OTHER POEMS. ATHENS: ICAROS, 1946. 4to (8 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.; 216 x 172 mm). Title-page vignette by Ghika. Original wrappers printed in red and black, repeating the Ghika vignette. Original glassine jacket; chipped at spine, lower glassine cover torn with paper loss.
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The Black Swan was conceived by Friar himself as a collection of poems concerning their love affair. Friar suggested publishing the volume when he asked Merrill in August 1946 to send him a poem he had misplaced.
