"Lenses" Annie Dillard

"Lenses" seems like quite the suitable title for Annie Dillard's short essay about description. She describes a microscope and swans truly in her own perception; her own lenses. That is perhaps one of the greatest beauties of human nature. We may all be looking at the same piece for inspiration for our writing (like a pair of swans), but all end up with different explanations of how we see the swans. Dillard focuses on the movement of the swans as she gazes at them through her binoculars. I on the other hand would have been more romantic in my description of the swans.

When I think of a pair of swans on Valentine's Day (as Dillard writes in her description), I would surely play more off the symbolism of swans caressing each other in the shape of a heart. I would write about how they were bound to each other's trust as they take their trip up the Atlantic coast. I would remark of the beauty that they share in their pure white feathers. I would express how their coat represents their cleansing spirit to start anew in a fresh location. I would speak about how a swan's journey could perhaps be similar to a journey in companionship.

As perhaps easily noted, I would perhaps describe more of the unknown, idealistic parallels than try to write about their wingspan. The one thing that bothers me about Dillard's description is her lack of poetic language in areas where it almost seems silly to just leave a simplistic remark. For example, she writes, "All their feathers were white; their eyes were black. Their wingspan was six feet; they were bigger than I was" (121). I knew that the moment she said she had spotted swans. Automatically my mind pictured two stereotypical swans. Couldn't she have given us more? Were there imperfections in the white coat of the swans? Were their eyes so black that it caused a sense of unease to the viewer? Or were the eyes so enthralling and mystical that one could not help but wonder what those eyes saw that the binocular holder did not. I want to know more than just the basics. Give me something to hold on to. I want to hold so tight to the words that she writes that I cannot question at all the picture she is setting for me. I want to believe that what she is telling me is so true that there can be no question beyond doubt that those swans are large and flying somewhere.

I am not quite sure I like the lenses to which Dillard perceives the world. They are quite realistic and descriptive without too much use of the imagination. I want metaphors, curious future predictions, and lyrical adjectives to describe those swans. I can only conclude from this essay that Dillard and I do not see "eye to eye."