Abstract
May Swenson, a Utah native and a New York City resident, is a relatively unknown contemporary American poet who is beginning to gain momentum in literary circles. Her poetry can best be described as gay and sober, enlightening and baffling, refreshing and perplexing, simple and complex. The poet experiences paradoxes in her life situation, examines them, and communicates her doubts and discoveries to her audience. Reverberations of the poet's obsession with the dichotomies of reality are manifested implicitly and explicitly throughout her art. | In this thesis May Swenson’s poetry will be analyzed in terms of a prevailing theme of search. Attempts will be made to prove that this search is motivated by the poet’s desire for certitude, and is continued because she cannot accept certitude. It is believed that these two conflicting factors perpetuate the search and permeate Miss Swenson's poetry to the degree that it can be traced as a thematic continuity in most of her works. "Search,” then, will refer to that seeking of truth that ends in the paradox of certitude-doubt.