Understanding Simple And Complicated Symbols In Poetry

By Patty Goff


Students of literature always find their selves complaining about their assignments as most of their professors require them to submit a reaction paper about the assigned poems, short stories, plays, and novels that are all hard to understand. Reading them over and over again will not help unless you have a background of symbolisms to unlock the message in between the lines.

Literature stands for the opinions, views or perception, feelings, and the emotions of the writer. These writings give us messages indirectly and as readers we have the responsibility to connect and unlock the nouns, verbs, and adjectives to come up with an interpretation of symbols in poetry that have been used. The depth of the symbolism and language plays an important role to make the writing mysterious.

All poems and plays have a story to reveal either happy, sad, or glory. But most poems highlight the memories of love, silence, grief, war, success, death, and even defeat. They correlate pain and misery to darkness, uncertain events, and cold ambiance. Memories are the favorite theme as it depict real life experiences and easy to select words.

Symbolism is a method used by creative writers of poems and novels to deliver deep and dark meanings of short phrases instead of writing those literal boring words. Apart from their own experiences and memories, these writers prefer to describe the people they have observed and the places that they have visited.

Getting interested with symbolism and writing, better invest with books because you can find here some examples and the meanings are often provided as guidance. If you are out of budget, you can always browse the internet for other sources of information about literature and the old and new symbolism techniques. Messages are delivered indirectly to challenge every reader that might come across the work of a seasoned writer.

Now if you analyze and think why authors opt for symbolism, the answer is very simple. They want to write vibrant images and strong feelings into words for the readers' to deal with. The words force you to feel and expectedly react to it. Words are very powerful tool for expressing emotions. Just like what they us, a pen is stronger and mightier than a sword.

Learning to write poems is possible if you know to apply the basics of symbolism. The fewer words you use, the better your work. Using several lines of descriptive words is boring and very predictable. Never rush in writing the content. Always stick to your motive and feelings. Find the time where you are inspired to write and find a place where you can be comfortable writing.

Good written poems have different interpretations depending on the reader's perspective. Only the author knows the correct interpretation. The words seemed to be opposite, disorganized, and obscured all the time. It makes it more magical.

Literature classes are very challenging. As an aspiring writer, better look for a teacher who can teach you basic symbolism techniques. Teachers can guide and assist you as you learn higher and difficult writings.




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