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Veronica Iredale
The use of an object and/or word in order to portray an abstract idea. Symbols can be used to give deeper meaning.
Note: The symbolic meaning of a word or object is usually different than the literal meaning.
Common symbols: dove, red rose, black, moon, etc.
"Wild Asters",
"Directive", "London"
"Wild Asters"
-Sara Teasdale
Daisies: the author uses daisies to symbolize wisdom that comes with age and experience. "Clear-eyed" can be seen as level-headed, and "always knew" suggests wisdom that goes along with the concept of age.
Asters: asters in this poem could represent youth and ignorance. We can infer that after the daisies have died for the season and the weed-like asters sprout and take over the fields, "not one knows" suggests youthful ignorance.
In the spring I asked the daisies
If his words were true,
And the clever, clear-eyed daisies
Always knew.
Now the fields are brown and barren,
Bitter autumn blows,
And of all the stupid asters
Not one knows.
House of make-believe, playhouse: Frost uses a playhouse or a "house of make-believe" to represent the Chirstian church. He continues with this symbol throughout the poem, claiming that those who contribute to the playhouse are like children.
First there's the children's house of make-believe,
Some shattered dishes underneath a pine,
The playthings in the playhouse of the children.
Weep for what little things could make them glad.
Then for the house that is no more a house,
But only a belilaced cellar hole,
Now slowly closing like a dent in dough.
This was no playhouse but a house in earnest.
Your destination and your destiny's
A brook that was the water of the house,
Cold as a spring as yet so near its source,
Too lofty and original to rage.
(We know the valley streams that when aroused
Will leave their tatters hung on barb and thorn.)
I have kept hidden in the instep arch
Of an old cedar at the waterside
A broken drinking goblet like the Grail
Under a spell so the wrong ones can't find it,
So can't get saved, as Saint Mark says they mustn't.
(I stole the goblet from the children's playhouse.)
Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
Palace Walls: Palace walls are a symbol for the monarchy and the cruel institution of Blake's time. "Runs in blood" may be a nod to the royal family's bloodline.
Chimney-sweepers: this is a symbol of child-labor in Blake's time. This is a complex symbol that would require knowledge of the time when this poem was written.
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow.
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infants cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear
How the Chimney-sweepers cry
Every blackning Church appalls,
And the hapless Soldiers sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls
But most thro' midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse