IN the poem “Swift Things are Beautiful” by Elizabeth Coatsworth reveals that every thing is beautiful in its own way. Although the title says that only swift things are beautiful, the poet also lists slow things that are beautiful. She uses unusual examples that some people may think are not beautiful at all, but change his or her mind when that person reads about something in this poem. Each line in this poem has a pair or match with a line in the other stanza. For example, the fast “Wind in the wheat” (6), and “the opening flower” in the slow stanza, are similar because they both describe plants in nature. The wheat in line six also represents how farming can be beautiful. The flower in line 14 describes all slow nature that is beautiful. Each line that matches with another also represents something different then the line it matches, as shown in the previous example. In this poem, Elizabeth Coatsworth describes three of her ideas using two lines instead of one. An example of this is “And lightning that falls/ Bright-veined and clear” (3-4). The poet describes the quick moment with much detail. Many times people are afraid of lightning, and fail to see the beauty in the lightning that the poet talked about. Another example of this is “The ox that moves on/ In the quiet of power.” (15-16) Many people would not think of an ox as beautiful, but the way the she describes it makes the ox seem important and beautiful.
