Whether Swenson is recounting the fatal Challenger liftoff, or advising undergraduates, her attention is fixed on America's varied rhythms. Her stylistic inventiveness is best represented here by a long fable that mixes verse and prose. Swenson has long been fascinated with plant and animal behavior. In "The Cross Spider" she imagines an insect's predicament as it tries to spin a web in Skylab's weightless space. Swenson's poetic landscape is replete with such "beasts and birds that speak and sing."
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