The titular swan represents the transformative powers of nature. Its transcendent nature is emphasized even in the early lines of Olivers’s poem, through the use of metaphors like “An armful of white blossoms, / A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned / into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies” (2-4). As such, the swan’s identity, and the particular picture of the natural world that it represents, emerges early on as multifaceted, composed of many different but still interconnected beautiful parts.

In fact, the swan even injects a religious and spiritual valence into the transformative nature that it represents. The speaker finally views the swan as “A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet / Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river” (11-12). This note of religiosity or spiritually highlights how the transcendence that...