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A Path Through The Poetic Life Of May Swenson

May Swenson, a woman with a short haircut and plaid shirt, looks directly at the camera.
mayswensionsociety.org
May 28, officially called May Swenson Day, honors this acclaimed poet who called Logan her home.

With brochures in hand, both Paul Crumbley, professor of English at Utah State University, and I walk up the steps to the second floor of the Ray B. West building.

These brochures illustrate the newly created May Swenson Poetry Path. There are nine separate locations on the path, landmarks from the renowned poet’s life. We are headed to location number four, the Swenson room in the Ray B. West Building. Here we find all kinds of memorabilia; Swenson’s honorary doctorate degree from Utah State University, photos and books.

“Here is one of the medals she was given by Utah State. Here are some of the items she had on her desk,” Crumbley said.

Crumbley said he first came across one of Swenson’s poems in 1993 while he was grading AP English Literature exams in San Antonio. After that, he became fascinated with the life and works of Swenson. A few years later he took a job at Utah State University and was surprised and delighted to find that Swenson had been born and raised in Logan. In fact, she herself graduated from the Utah State Agricultural College, now Utah State University, in 1934.

The eldest of 10 children, May Swenson was born to parents who were Swedish immigrants. After their conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her parents decided to move to Zion, to Utah, to pursue their dreams. May Swenson was raised in a home located just below Old Main Hill. The family home no longer exists, but a plaque remains, landmark number five on the poetry path.

Crumbley said that the poetry path has been a work-in-progress for several years and that new locations on the path will be added in the years to come.

“We sort of had to reach a critical mass so that we could actually have enough locations to where it justified something we could call a path,” Crumbley said.

Crumbley works with other faculty and students on what are called the May Swenson Projects, which have included seminars, symposiums, readings and official postings of Swenson’s poetry in Logan and the surrounding area.

“You begin to see that the poetry is not some rarified artifact that is disconnected from the lives of actual people," Crumbley said. "Also, having these poems in such different locations also emphasizes the range of subjects that Swenson was interested in. She didn’t have a particular niche that she claimed for herself and built her identity around. She was always branching out, always experimenting and trying new things.”

He said their main goal is to raise awareness of this celebrated poet’s life and works.

“One of the real benefits is young people growing up with that knowledge don’t see it as beyond their reach to also do something in the arts that can attract national and international attention,” Crumbley said.

Now we head over to the Merrill-Cazier Library on the USU campus. This is location number three on the poetry path. On the fourth floor there is an area dedicated to May Swenson. The wall features several of her framed poems as well as accompanying photographs.

“In this poem ‘I Look at my Hand,' the speaker senses the influence of both mother and father on the kind of person she’s become, both mentally and physically,” Crumbley said.

“She went through a period where she did shape poems. She called them ‘iconographs.’ She wanted the poems to have a physical, visual presence that registered before you had the chance to read the poem. The poem would make one kind of impression before it engaged the mind and the imagination,” Crumbley said.

Other locations on the path include a visit to Logan High School, where Swenson graduated, the Logan Public Library, the Logan City Cemetery where she is buried, and even a plaque dedicated to Swenson on the Bear Lake overlook.

“So I think when you see poems not in a book, but on a wall or in a natural environment, you think about them differently," Crumbley said. "I think people are more inclined to read them.”