Symbolism and Imagery Writing Assignment. Only for Quality!

Images and Symbols in Poetry

Composition 2

Introduction to Images and Symbols

 The image: something seen for and by itself. A visual created using descriptive language, which generates emotion, invests the reader in the poem, and helps create “the moment.”

 The symbol: something that exists in the poem, but that also represents a larger idea. Symbols lead readers to a bigger understanding.

 Sometimes, an image is a symbol.

Images

 Images are not always symbols.

 “Imagist” poets like Amy Lowell and William Carlos Williams create images in their poems that stand alone. They create pictures in the readers’ mind, convey emotion, and that’s it.

 Consider beautiful paintings: The artist creates an image and conveys a feeling and evokes a response from the audience. The moment, the feeling, the meaning are all just the image.

 Don’t worry about seeking out deeper, hidden meanings in every poem.

 Images create vivid sensory responses in the reader – this means they can appeal to your senses and help you understand the occasion or memory being described.

Examples of Images

 From “The Act” by William Carlos Williams: “There were roses, in the rain.”

 Somber, clear image.  The rose, in this poem, may be symbolic of the passage of time (In the

poem, the speaker says the roses are too beautiful to be cut and the other person cuts them, saying “we were all beautiful once.”)

 From “At a Certain Age” by Deborah Cummins: “Clutching coupons, he wanders the aisles.”

 This image is comical and clear.  This is an example of imagery that is not symbolic. It just helps us

understand the moment and the person in the poem.

 From “For a Father” by Elise Partridge: “crouched like a surfer,” “wheels clacketing,” “you veered almost straight into the neighbor’s hedge.”

 These happy and silly images help us understand the speaker’s relationship to her father.

 These are not symbols, but are essential to the meaning of the poem.

An imagist poem

 Read “This is Just to Say.” This very short poem creates a vivid image of a few objects: cold, sweet plums.

 The scene, the letter, the image: that’s all there is in the poem.

 There is a form, intentional wording, and vivid imagery.

 There is a playful feeling and an idea of the importance of these objects (the speaker knows the other person was “saving” the plums).

Symbols

 Items in a poem that represent or call to the readers’ minds larger ideas.

 In the poem “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” which you’ll read in this lesson, the image of the aunt’s needlepoint is described in great detail. Those tigers also represent strength, pride and freedom.

 Not all poem rely on symbolism, so don’t think you have to “hunt” for symbols and hidden meanings in every poem. In “Living in Sin,” the speaker describes many items in their apartment. These help to create a moment and feeling, but they are not symbols: the piano does not represent any larger idea.

 Poets usually place emphasis on a symbol so that it’s clear to you that the object has special significance. (In “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” the tigers are described in detail, in contrast to Jennifer, and are named in the title.)

Examples of Symbols

 Read “My Papa’s Waltz” in your textbook.  There are several images – the pots and pans falling, the mother’s

face, the child’s ear scraped by a belt buckle, the father’s “battered” knuckles.

 The dance itself is both an image (you can picture it) and a symbol – it’s clearly important and central to the poem and represents a bigger idea or concept.

 The author points your attention to the dance: it’s in the title, it’s in the first couple of lines, and it is referred to several times. We know the waltz is important to the speaker and the poem.

 The waltz symbolizes their relationship: it’s not clear whether it’s playful or dangerous, it involves them both but is dominated by the father, and it’s “not easy.”