The Swing by Don Paterson

• The Swing is a poem by Don Paterson about love and loss.
• The speaker builds a swing for his children, and whilst doing so considers the loss of an expected baby.
• The reader is never made explicitly aware of the nature of this loss, but understands the speaker's sadness and upset about this significant event in his life.

This poem contains themes of:

• parent and child relationship, specifically fatherhood
• loss
• spirituality

You can read The Swing by Don Paterson on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

The Swing by Don Paterson is 36 lines long divided into nine stanzas of equal length.

The nine stanzas are written in quatrains and loosely follow an ABAB rhyme scheme. This gives the poem a rhythmic precision, echoing the movements of a swing, and linking to a traditional ballad or lullaby.

The structure of the poem is chronological, as the poet works through the task of erecting and installing the swing “for the boys”. Matter-of-fact descriptions of the job he is undertaking are interspersed through the poem with the poet’s contrasting emotions. He shares both the pride in his work and grief at the loss of a child.

The use of enjambment throughout conveys the poet’s emotional response to the situation whilst repetition and the regular rhyme scheme counter this, as he attempts to rationalise the awful situation he and his wife find themselves in.

There is a quiet, understated calmness to the poem that, despite its content, is typical of some of Paterson’s work and serves to highlight the emotional gravity of the experience.

The poem opens with the speaker setting up a new swing for his boys, describing them as:

the here-and-here-to-stay

This hints at something more significant than the simple act he is doing. He then indicates that his wife is the only person who knows why he “dug so solemnly” suggesting his mood was one of inner sadness and upset. The act of digging in a solemn manner has connotations of digging a grave for a funeral, and this foreshadows what is to come later in the poem.

The detailed but practical descriptions of his actions in stanzas two and three:

• “hammered down the pegs"
• "filled up the holes"
• "stamped the dirt"

This all suggests the poet is trying to focus on the task at hand to keep his mind off the reality of the family’s impending situation. The contrast of this sombre atmosphere with the brightness of the "yellow seat" shows their attempt to maintain some fun and happiness for their children.

The third stanza ends with the swing fully built, as the speaker admires his "handiwork". Now that he has finished his activity the poem enters a more reflective mood.

Stanza four opens with a further foreshadowing of what is to come. The transferred epithet of the swing’s structure being “frail” indicates that the expected baby “would not come”, perhaps due to some physical weakness. This links back to the "skinny legs" of the swing in the second stanza. There is then an unusual word choice in the final two lines of the stanza:

of what we knew had two more days/ before we sent it home

The previous line referred to "the child' but "what" suggests an object rather than a person. It could suggest detachment, possibly the speaker is creating an emotional distance to protect themselves or control their feelings. The reader is made fully aware of the reason for the poet’s melancholy in the poignant statement that the pregnancy would end in “two more days”. This could be taken as a reference to a planned medical procedure as the pregnancy is not viable. But in any case, they are aware that it will end soon.

In stanza five the speaker makes a blunt statement, as he tries to rationalise the loss:

I know there is nothing here

This creates a sombre mood and makes clear to the reader the depths of his sorrow. It could be interpreted as a suggestion that the speaker does not have religious faith - that he does not believe there is any life beyond the one the child would have had with them ("no venue and no host"). In this context, "host" could be a reference to communion bread, therefore reinforcing that he does not have Christian belief.

He is forced to confront the reality of what this lost baby means when he refers to “the honest fulcrum of the hour”, suggesting that this is a turning point in his life and possibly that he and his wife will have no more children. The reference to “ghost” at the end of this stanza suggests that, although this child will never be born, its presence will stay with the couple for the rest of their lives.

Stanza six opens with the poet looking at the swing, and considering all it symbolises. The contrast between “bright” and “dark to dark” conveys his conflicting emotions as he imagines what might have been:

the bright sweep of its radar-arc/ is all the human dream

The swing is a metaphor for both life and light, between the dark of the womb and of death and the grave. The lost child will be no less important that those who are here to enjoy the swing.

Paterson uses the transferred epithet of the swing’s structure being “frail” to tell the reader that the expected baby “would not come”.

Learn about transferred epithet and why writers use it with this short Higher English revision video.

In stanzas seven and eight the poet plays with absence as presence. He reflects again on his lack of any religious belief:

“the coldness of my creed”

The alliteration of hard 'c' sounds suggest the speaker has no comfort to draw from any belief he has. Despite his rational denial, he knows he will forever carry some form of the unborn child’s spiritual presence within him. He states he:

could not weigh the ghosts we are/ with those that we deliver.

It's ambiguous whether the speaker here is referring to the act of being born ("those that we deliver") as a contrast to the "ghosts", but the suggestion is that he is wrestling with spiritual ideas, at a difficult time, without having certainty.

The focus of the final stanza returns to the poet at the swing, now fully built and ready for play, as he “gave the empty seat a push” suggesting he is imagining pushing his unborn child. The statement “nothing made a sound” reinforces the reality that this child will never be born, or heard, and this continues the idea of absence throughout the poem, with the 'empty seat" and the silence, where there should be the noise of children at play.

In the end, he imagines her presence, as a little girl enjoying the swing (“her feet upon the ground”) in contrast to the detached tone from earlier in the poem. The "swung between two skies" reverses the earlier line from stanza six where the poet reflects on life as "handing us from dark to dark/like a rope over a stream".

The final line "her feet upon the ground" give her a real physical presence, connecting with the earth which, along with the final perfect rhyme, gives the poem a poignant finality.

The theme of parent and child relationships runs throughout this poem.

The poet’s symbolic use of a swing represents happy childhood play and conjures up images of children being carefree and joyous. The speaker wants to create an enjoyable activity for his children. However, this is contrasted with a far more sombre experience - the loss of a child, who will therefore never get to experience childhood as his living children do. This duality is a reminder of the fragility of life.

The loss in this poem is that of an unborn child. The reader is never made aware of the precise reasons for this, but the devastating impact it has on the poet and his wife is laid bare. The initial loss is compounded when he tries to process it alongside his own beliefs, and acknowldges the importance of this moment in his life.

There is also a loss of childhood in the poem, as the child will not get to use the swing that is being built.

The speaker and his wife must accept the situation they are in, and try to work through their trauma.

The fragility of life, and the impact of this loss, is made clear in this poem as we discover the baby will not be born alive. The speaker tries to process these bigger philosophical ideas through the metaphor of the swing, thinking of life as a swinging arc:

…all the human dream/ handing us from dark to dark/ like a rope over a stream

It is suggested that the speaker is processing this event alongside a possible lack of Christian belief - but there is some ambiguity as he imagines the little girl's presence so strongly at the end.

This poem can be compared to Why Do You Stay Up So Late? and 11:00 Baldovan in terms of the themes of childhood and memories.

In 11:00 Baldovan, the poet describes the young boys’ first experience of travelling on the bus without their parents to highlight this significant moment in their childhood as they take their first steps towards independence.

In Why Do You Stay Up So Late? the poet tries to explain why and how he creates his poetry in a way his young son will understand, by reflecting on his memories of days spent at the beach and how they both, in their own ways, search for some 'treasure'.

The Thread, The Circle and Waking with Russell all deal with aspects of fatherhood as the poet shares his emotional responses to being a father and spending time with his sons. While The Swing reflects on a child who will never be born, The Thread and The Circle relate to a child who has nearly died and how this makes their life all the more precious to his father.

Just as the symbolic act of building a swing causes him to reflect on loss, so too does he find joy and gratitude in how the arrival of his sons has enriched his life.

Revise The Swing and other poems by Don Paterson with interactive quizzes for Higher English