A Study Guide for May Swenson's "Question"

Question

May Swenson

1954

Introduction

May Swenson was born into a large Mormon family in Utah but, soon after college, moved to New York City, where she became a fixture of the literary scene from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. Her poetry is not political in nature, but it has a powerful impact for the way that she questions the very nature of existence, appreciates the natural world with focused detail, and speaks openly about the poet's erotic experiences with other women at a time when such relationships were often hidden. Much of her influence in the world of literature came from the work that she did in addition to her own writing, such as editing the influential New Directions press at a time when it was the voice of the avant-garde and her chancellorship of the Academy of American Poets for the last decade of her long life.

Question is often included in poetry anthologies because it is a clear example of Swenson's work at its best. In this poem, the speaker wonders what life will be like after death separates her from her body. She speaks about the body in a sequence of easily recognizable metaphors: a house, a horse, a faithful dog. Talking about death this way allows readers to feel the looming sadness and the poet's sense of loss, an acknowledgment of the too-seldom-discussed emotional attachment between body and mind. After asking how she will cope with this separation, Swenson ends the poem with an even larger question, wondering what she will do when leaving her body exposes her to the world, leaving her with nowhere to