Swimming

Swimming ultimately becomes a metaphor for growth and determination. The deep end of the pool is symbolic for sexual encounters, while Anderson’s ability to swim translates to power. Anderson shares her experiences with swimming early on. “earthbound” describes 4-year-old Anderson, comfortable in the water while she holds onto the shore. However, the aggressive Lady of the Lake, as she has dubbed her swimming instructor, pulls her into the deep end. Anderson hollers until she is allowed to return to shore but it leaves her “suspicious of the deep” (18). Metaphorically Anderson seems to be suggesting that too often young women are forced into situations, sexual and otherwise, before they are ready. Young girls do not have the education and skills to fend off predators and need to be allowed to wade in the shallow end of the pool before diving in.

In a subsequent poem, “practice” she is...