Page 26

By Jack Joseph Smith

An Intellectual Laborer He went to dig at the dirt. At least Swans fly low through Louisiana moss. Fast with omph and stretched’ tongue; he looked round the Earth Then with precision3 he breasted up all his energy into his narrow vision It was like that Swan's lost fear: of the hunter’. when speed wouldn't: permit anything but the next Moon: He did not change direction; he just went into the Earth with a shovel. Maybe ‘like a beak efter'a Mole on a mountain, . it was difficult flight going down But still like a birdhead in the skys. he felt sure he could lose his mind Women and children overlooked him from above, but he could concentrate on nothing that it was all abouts, as Jésus over the Swan, .and the Swan never looking up,. because of being busy being fast The instant the Swan was shot, he stopped his project on the family grave He then approached the men who had blown out both brains, . and laughed at them like an estate at each and every boss Hig removal with some ease in deliberation recognizedsee - They had little on him in terms of repetitions.

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem fuses digging, bird imagery, death, and class contempt to portray labor as a driven, half-mad act of defiance.

The laborer digging at the dirt is repeatedly compared to swans, moles, and beaks, so work becomes animal motion guided by instinct and velocity rather than reflection. The turn at the family grave and the shot swan brings mortality directly into the poem's account of effort. When he laughs at the men and bosses, the figure becomes resistant and unreadable, someone whose repetitions have hardened into a strange kind of superiority.

Claude

Parable of an 'Intellectual Laborer' who goes into the Earth with a shovel, compared across the page to a swan shot mid-flight.

The poem uses two animals and one man to make a point about attention: the swan is shot because it doesn't look up, the laborer works because he won't. The final image — laughing at the bosses 'like an estate' — gives the worker the quiet revenge of owning what he's standing on. The comparison to Jesus 'over the Swan' keeps the page from simple class allegory.