Symbols are everywhere you look.  In this column, learn to look for symbols in your dreams, find symbols while walking around the house, and while reading poetry.  Finally, create your own symbols when you write poetry.

 

Dreaming in Symbols

 

Keep a writing journal and a pen alongside your bed.  While sleeping, your subconscious mind is speaking to you in symbolic language to help you recognize and face important issues and problems in your life.  Each morning when you awake, write down the details of your dreams.  A little bit later, interpret the dream.  Look for links between your dreams and the issues facing you in your life.  Once you make a connection between the symbols of dreams and the issues deep in your mind, you will gain new insight into your deep self.

 

Details of dreams

Interpretation

I dreamed that I put my teacher in the garbage bin.  Then a dog began to bark.  Finally, the dog flew away.

I think I am frustrated because I don’t understand my homework.  I throw it away, but actually, the barking dog symbolizes that I want to understand it.  When the dog flies away, that suggests that I will be successful if I accept my frustration.

 

I dreamed about some tourists who were looking at birds from far away.  My friend and I stood very still and the birds landed on us.  Each bird had a different colour stripe on it.  We fed them rice.

 

 

I dreamed…

 

 

 

 

 

Collecting Symbols

 

 

Remember that symbols suggest meaning indirectly, rather than explain exactly.

 

 

 

Collect symbols around your house or around the city.  Write down any item that might have symbolic meaning.  Identify personal items that symbolize you.  Complete the chart below to discover symbolic suggestions in ordinary objects.  As you discover symbolic meaning in everyday life, use symbols and see how well they work in your poetry. 

  

Object

Suggested Meaning

My pen

 

Dad’s flashlight

Symbolizes hope when life is difficult

Mouse

 

Kitchen table

Symbolizes my family

Picture frame

 

Mom’s handkerchief

 

A stale potato chip

 

My old shoes

 

An ashtray

Symbolizes dirt, ignorance and death

An envelope

 

A used tea bag

Symbolizes end of life, old and useless

 

Context Symbols

 

The meaning of a context symbol depends on the setting and images within the poem.  In The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, rivers symbolize various times in history.  He uses the depth and length of rivers to symbolize the history and struggle of his people.  Observe the symbols in each line and reflect on their symbolic meaning. Symbolism implies an unwritten meaning beyond the literal words.

 

Line of Poetry

Symbolic Interpretation

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young

An innocent and peaceful time in the life of Negroes

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep

Shows down to earth life style, working and resting in native land

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it

Slavery of Negroes in ancient Egypt

 

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans

Slavery in America, with hope that the president will free them

 

Create Symbols

           

Begin writing poetry with a theme in mind and then search for things to symbolize it.  Literally, you might say, “My teacher died and I miss her very much.  Written symbolically, you could say, “I cry when I see her empty desk.”  In this example, crying is symbolic of sadness and the desk is symbolic of the person who used to sit in it.  Re-write these lines using symbols to represent meaning.

 

Literally

 

Symbolically

She was a perfect mother

 

 

You make me happy

 

 

I was lonely and nobody loved me

 

 

 

In both reading and writing poetry, be aware of what is suggested by words, in addition to literal meaning.  Evaluate for yourself how images and symbols influence your creation and comprehension of poetry.