In Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death," she uses various types of figurative language and imagery (personification, metaphor, and symbol) to portray the idea that death is not a dreadful event, but actually a pleasant experience. ... Symbolism is the use of "an image intended both to stand on its own right and attract meanings to itself" (Hunt 1579). ... "Fields of Gazing Grain" is a symbol for adulthood or the long middle part of life. ... Besides symbolism, "We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain" involves personification and visual image. ...

• Word Count: 541
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Symbolism in poetry is used to portray one thing but really mean another. ... Both poets used animals as symbols to interpret the theme of their poems. ... In "Traveling through the Dark", Stafford used a dead deer as a symbol of nature ruined by the act of man. ... Many things can be used as symbols in a poem to represent a distinct meaning to it. Animals are probably best to use as symbols since some of them resemble the personal characteristics of certain people. ...

• Word Count: 673
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

There are also very few technical features in the poem, the only special addition, (other than the alliteration "dark and deep") like with most of his other poems is the heavy use of symbolism. ... Another closely related example of symbolism is "Between the woods and the frozen lake". The woods are now a symbol of life, a change from the previous example, and the frozen lake, devoid of life, is a symbol of death. The final example of symbolism is an obvious one in which death is compared to sleep. ...

• Word Count: 1353
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Masters wrote in a free verse style using the devices of irony, simplicity, morals and values, and symbols. ... Masters use of symbols was prevalent throughout the poem. ... He used devices such as irony, symbolism, morals, and realistic lifestyle. ...

• Word Count: 529
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Therefore, the hooks are used as symbolism for the unknown and represent the questions Plath torments herself with. ... Knowing that Plath was not a religious woman, these descriptions may be symbols of what she believes is the destruction of the church and her view of the people that follow it She also compares the Communion Tablet to a pill. ... In the following stanza, the rodents are revealed as symbols of people who are happy and satisfied with their lives and show hopes are so low they are comfortable. ... This is possibly symbolism for a fresh start and new hope in Sylvia Plath...

• Word Count: 1168
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Yeats uses symbolism and motif as a means to represent the tension between the two worlds he is astride during 1916. ... However, through the symbolism of the swans, Yeats imposes his own desires to resist this change. ... This is illustrated in the symbolism and motif of circularity throughout the poem. Yeat's makes continuous reference to 'the widening gyres', a symbol of the cyclic nature of the world, as he depicts a world making the transition into the antithetical and chaotic gyre. ...

• Word Count: 1286
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost suggest that the world will end by fire or by ice. Fire being the symbol for desire and passion versus ice that of hatred. Frost identifies the two scientific forms of the world end, by fire or by ice. By means of rhymes and understatements, Frost allows us to see h...

• Word Count: 534
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

There are many aspects of the poem that will be dealt with including the following: structure, symbolism, tone, situation or setting, the speaker, and rhyme and meter scheme. ... Throughout "The Harlem Dancer", McKay uses metaphores and different symbols to express his feelings in this piece of writing. ... Some of the elements used in this poem include the following: structure, tone, rhyme scheme, and symbolism. The symbols used within the poem vary from the physical appearance of the dancer to the way she dances. ...

• Word Count: 1662
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

This is the key factor which makes this poem stand out from the rest – because of its open nature and non-complex form that if you tried to search for any meaning or symbolism behind Frost's words, he has almost intentionally left a vast space for interpretation, paving the way for endless views, or perspectives in which this poem can been taken. ... The symbolism that can be taken from the meaning of the poem is by seeing it as a metaphor for old age, and accepting death with no reservations. ... With these symbols in place, the man could have been a manifestation of Death –...

• Word Count: 943
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Daddy Sylvia Plath 1932-1963 Sylvia Plath wrote "Daddy" just four months before her death by suicide in February 1963. In the months, before she took her life she wrote two to three poems per day in a frenzy to purge her system of the chaos of her thoughts and emotions. Daddy is a confessiona...

• Word Count: 771
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

A continued journey of the foetus is displayed through the symbol of the, "belly," depicting the literal image of pregnancy emphasising this journey of childbirth, a mother goes through before meeting her child. ... The symbolism of the word, "daylight," defines the awakening of not only the child as it enters the light of the real world, but also the awakening of an individual after a night of sleep. ...

• Word Count: 684
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Blake's poems are extremely simple, but his descriptions of nature are steeped in symbolism and hidden meaning. ... The tiger is by nature both vicious and fearsome, but is also a symbol of energy. ... This image of fire may be a religious symbol of purgatory or purification. ...

• Word Count: 1115
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Cummings uses such literary devices as symbolism, imagery, allusion, and syntax to show that the speaker of the poem has just experienced a rebirth.The speaker is thanking God for allowing him to see life in a new light and to be reborn again for a fresh start.By using these various literary devices, Cummings is able to show the extreme gratefulness the speaker in the poem feels because he has found a new outlook on life. ... As the creator of all things natural, God is responsible for the "leaping greenly spirits of trees- and the "blue true dream of sky- that fascinate and enthrall t...

• Word Count: 2203
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Whitman's Elegies and His View of Death An elegy is a poetic response to the experience of loss. Although the elegy is among the oldest poetic forms with a rich history in myths and in religious texts, the elegy was a popular nineteenth-century genre. Walt Whitman was familiar with both old and con...

• Word Count: 1210
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The writers of the poems "Hawk Roosting" and "Vulture" allow the reader to identify many similarities in their poems upon reading them. The two poems, although written in very different styles are rather interesting. From the two titles, the reader can note a marked similarity in that the two ...

• Word Count: 1305
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The poem "The Visitor," by Gibbons Ruark has a direct title which immediately introduces the concept of an outsider "The Visitor" who comes to the household for a specific time to undertake a specific duty. Though there is no specific rhyme scheme visible, the poem is written in such a manner that i...

• Word Count: 1281
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Graduate

Therefore, a spider is being described as a symbolism of purity and innocence with features reminiscent of a newborn child. ... Fire, a symbol of passion, consumes and destroys quickly while leaving ashes in its wake. ...

• Word Count: 1104
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

In the section where the child asks the speaker what grass is, he proceeds to explain his symbolism of the grass that utilizes themes of nature (nature's cycles of rebirth and regeneration), a theme of unity and the democracy that runs the country (grass grows everywhere and links everyone's yards together as a whole), and a symbol of death or mortality (grass grows from the ground fertilized by the dead soldiers of the Civil War). ...

• Word Count: 1470
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Poe's Poems In personal appearance, Edgar Allen Poe was a quiet, shy-looking, but handsome man; he was slightly built, and was five feet, eight inches in height. His mouth was considered beautiful. His eyes, with long dark lashes, were hazel-gray. Poe's brain, on the other hand, worked on a different, more darker, wavelength than others. Poe made many contributions to Western Literature. ...

• Word Count: 2508
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The New York Times Book Review gave this quote "new poem after new poem makes clear how deeply each Frost poem bears on all Frost poems, and how surely all are a constant symbol of his life's commitment to making metaphors that clarify the dark paradoxes they contain. ...

• Word Count: 3004
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

The twentieth century really begins before the end of the nineteenth century. Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of an era. An end-of-century stoicism, and a growing pessimism among writers and intellectuals, may be traced to several sources, not least the publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species which put the existence of God into radical question. Across the whole population, and in the face of rapid economic and social changes, radical doubts about the stability of the existing order were expressed. By the end of the nine...

• Word Count: 10566
• Approx Pages: 42