Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

May Swenson’s “Old No. 1” is a vivid and reflective poem that examines the fate of a buoy washed ashore, blending its physical description with meditations on time, resilience, and the inevitable forces of nature. Through her precise language, striking imagery, and subtle personification, Swenson transforms the inanimate object into a symbol of endurance and decline.

The poem opens with the dramatic image of the buoy, “washed up on the beach,” its surprising appearance described as “a shock.” Swenson’s initial comparison of the buoy to “an iron whale” or “a blunt rocket” sets the tone for her imaginative exploration. These metaphors emphasize the buoy’s massive, weathered presence, likening it to both natural and man-made forces. Its emergence from the sea—“pulled from bottom, breaking the root / of the anchor”—suggests a powerful storm that has disturbed the buoy from its long-held station, underscoring nature’s capacity to disrupt and reshape.

Swenson’s attention to detail captures the buoy’s state of decay and transformation. Its physical characteristics, such as the “big ring in [its] snout half buried” and the “rusted cone below [its] watermark,” are described with tactile precision. The “scabby orange” rust and “glazed black paintskin” evoke both the passage of time and the harsh conditions it has endured. The gull droppings that mar its surface add a touch of irony, juxtaposing its former status as a guiding presence on the water with its current ignoble state. These details render the buoy both a relic and a casualty, embodying the tension between resilience and vulnerability.

The buoy’s identity, marked by its stenciled label “No.1,” ties it to its former role as a reliable fixture of the bay. Swenson anthropomorphizes it with affectionate nicknames like “old Stove Pipe” and “Bouncer in the Channel,” evoking a sense of camaraderie and respect. Its counterpart, “Big Red No. 2,” is described as still afloat, “swaying on today’s / gentler tide like a jolly bottle.” This contrast highlights the buoy’s fall from grace, further emphasizing its grounding as a significant loss or change.

Swenson’s use of imagery extends to the surrounding environment, situating the buoy in a broader landscape of storm-tossed detritus. The “ridge of sedge the storm tide / harvested” and the “frowzy dead gull / upended in the sandy litter” create a scene of desolation and aftermath. The gull, lying lifeless beside the buoy, mirrors its inert state, reinforcing the theme of mortality and the transient nature of existence.

Beneath the surface of its descriptive richness, the poem contemplates themes of time and purpose. The buoy, once a vital “Policeman of the Bay,” now lies abandoned, its function erased by the storm. This transformation invites reflection on how objects—and, by extension, people—are shaped and ultimately undone by forces beyond their control. Swenson’s tone is both elegiac and accepting, acknowledging the buoy’s fall while celebrating its endurance and significance in its prime.

The poem’s closing lines—“you, Black Butt, you’re gone aground, down / past the count of ten”—suggest finality and a sense of reckoning. The buoy’s journey from the depths of the sea to the ridge of the shore symbolizes a life cycle completed, while the imagery of being “past the count of ten” hints at an ultimate, irreversible change. Yet, in its grounded state, the buoy retains its identity as “old No. 1,” a testament to its enduring mark on the world, even in stillness.

In “Old No. 1”, Swenson masterfully blends the physical and symbolic, turning a stranded buoy into a poignant meditation on resilience, change, and the passage of time. Through her rich descriptions and layered metaphors, she captures the beauty and fragility of things that endure, only to be transformed by the inexorable forces of nature.

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