The following text is a poem by Priya Nair.
Migration
The swallows left on the same morning as the first frost, as if they had been watching the thermometer and booking passage.
5 I do not anthropomorphise. I know they leave because the insects go and the insects go because the cold comes and the cold comes because the earth is tilted as it is.
10 Still, I stood at the window a long time after the last of them.
There is a marsh seven thousand miles south where they will overwinter without knowing they have left. 15 They carry no concept of departure. They will not miss these fields.
I will not miss these fields either. I am also leaving at the end of the month. I have also made arrangements.
20 I wonder sometimes what it is to travel without loss, to arrive somewhere new and find it simply: the place where you are. To winter without knowing 25 that you are wintering.
How and to what effect is symbolism used in this text?
Essay preview
Symbolism is central to the poem because Nair uses the swallows’ migration to create a comparison between animal movement and human leaving, and from that comparison she explores consciousness, loss and the burden of self-awareness. The swallows are not merely part of the setting: they become a symbol of a way of movin