USU Student Researcher Asks How May Swenson's Unpublished Art Reframes Her Poetry

LOGAN, Utah — May Swenson (1913-1989) is widely celebrated as one of the best-known poets of the 20th century, with 59 poems published in The New Yorker, several books of poetry, and a nine-year service as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Now student researcher Brook Haight is exploring an overlooked part of Swenson’s legacy: her unpublished artwork. This research highlights how Swenson’s creativity extends beyond her poetry, and to view her as only a poet is to miss a valuable aspect of her creative vision.

Born and raised in Logan, Swenson attended Utah State University and majored in English. Perhaps as integral to her education and creative process was her minor in art. Swenson was not just a master of language — she was an artist of words, shaping them in both meaning and in form. Swenson is known for her innovative use of concrete poetry, where the formatting of the words arranges an image that deepens the poem’s impact.

Haight, a creative writing major at USU, began viewing Swenson’s artwork while in an upper-division archival research class. While looking through the Swenson collection in USU’s Special Collections and Archives, she found a drawing of a cat titled “Boa.”

“It was this really interesting connection, because [art] isn’t something I usually see when researching poets,” Haight said. “May Swenson has a poem titled ‘Sleeping with Boa’ and one called ‘Drawing the Cat,’ so when we made that connection to the drawing, it felt really cool.”

This discovery, along with Haight’s professor Christine Cooper-Rompato, prompted her to apply for a scholarship from The Cache Valley Historical Society, which allowed her to continue her research on Swenson’s unpublished artwork.

“You see so many similar topics in her art to what she's writing about,” Haight said.

Another correlation between Swenson’s art and poetry can be found between her poem “Orbiter 5” and a collage from Washington University Archives. “Orbiter 5” is shaped like the earth from space, and the collage features her supposed inspiration photo for that iconograph. The work includes assorted newspaper clippings and art, which tell their own story. Also found in USU Special Collections and Archives is an image and newspaper clippings of a DNA strand, the inspiration for Swenson’s poem “The DNA Module,” which is shaped like a double helix.

“It gave me more insight into her process,” Haight said. “So much of her process is observational, and it’s not just describing something in words only. It was about getting the shape or the color, like with the collage poems.”

While the reasons why Swenson’s artwork was never published are speculative, Haight believes it may have to do with how artists are viewed as a whole.

“While explaining my research to the executor of Swenson’s estate, they responded, ‘May Swenson is a poet, not an artist.’ But just because she didn’t professionally draw these things doesn’t make her less of a visual artist,” Haight said. “A lot of people want to put artists in a box and ascribe whatever you do professionally as the only creative thing you do. … When we engage with artist’s art in that way, we’re depriving ourselves as an audience.”

Cooper-Rompato sees this research as an expansion of Swenson’s legacy.

“One of the biggest contributions of this research is thinking about May Swenson as a visual poet, beyond her concrete poems,” she said.

Haight will present her research for the Cache Valley Historical Society and community members at 7 p.m. April 9 at the Logan Library. This is in addition to an event planned at Swenson Park later this spring.

“May Swenson did so many interesting and innovative things with her poetry that to not look at other elements — especially if you are truly and earnestly trying to understand what she was writing about — cuts yourself off a whole section of understanding,” Haight said.

A cornerstone of Utah State University, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences brings together faculty members engaged in original research and creative activities to teach and mentor students who aspire to be leaders in their professions and communities. Degrees in humanities and social sciences cultivate highly adaptable professional skills in students through teaching effective communication, research, data analysis, and creative problem-solving.