Analyze the poem "Lifeguard" by Claudia Emerson.

“Lifeguard” By Claudia Emerson is a nine stanza poem written using the literary device known as enjambment. It does not include a specific rhyming pattern. Each stanza consists of two lines, the second of which runs into the next stanza as an incomplete thought.

The author describes a young lifeguard’s actions as she watches a middle-aged woman’s ritual of swimming laps at the local Y. The woman is the only person in the pool and the monotony of her actions lull the lifeguard to sleep. Due to the literary style, the reader must carry each thought from stanza to stanza in much the same way as the woman repeatedly swims each lap.  The meter and visual aesthetics of the poem emphasize the repetitive nature of the laps as the form repeats in each stanza. The woman swims her laps one after another without stopping in-between. The poem mimics this in style and form.

What visuals would illustrate the poem "Lifeguard" by Claudia Emerson?

This is a great poem for visuals. Excellent. Besides the obvious images of a female lifeguard (preferably dressed as described in the poem) another great visual would include a middle aged woman in a pool all alone. Maybe another of the same woman swimming the strokes described in the poem, as well. But one of the best visuals in my mind is when the swimmer realizes the lifeguard isn't really paying attention to her anymore. A neat one would be a close up of the lifeguard staring at the ends of her hair as she says "So she abandons me to study split-ends, hangnail, wristwatch..." (Emerson). Imagine her eyes staring at split ends.

And then the end, when it says "I've never felt so safe in my life, making flawless, practiced turns, pushing, invisible to reenter my own wake, reverse it" (Emerson) you could use an image of the woman alone in the water, looking free. Try to capture the fact that she feels free when she isn't being watched in the pool.