Symbolism

 

Consider for a moment: What one object would you choose to represent yourself? To symbolize yourself as a student, you might choose a book. To indicate that you are a parent, you could select a picture of your child. If you are a musician, you could use a clef. A sports fan might consider a football or hockey stick. Some people might identify their astrological sign or birthstone. All of these things are symbols, and they tell something about a person.

 

Question

 

Choose one poem from among those you were assigned this week except Sonnet 29, which will be used as an example below.

 

Part A: Review the poem you have chosen, and for about 15 minutes, record the emotions that you experience when you read the poem. You may include emotions that you had when you first encountered the poem. Don’t worry about grammar or spelling at this point. Try to capture the feelings as best you can. Write a paragraph for this part of the assignment.

 

Part B: Now, look at the poem again. Make a table with three columns. In the far left column, list the specific words or phrases that triggered the emotions you identified in Part A. In the middle column, describe the emotions that these words evoked. Finally, in the right-hand column, speculate why the poem’s language caused the emotions you identified.

 

For example, someone who reads Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 (copied below) might create the following the chart. Here is the sonnet and then the chart:

 

Sonnet 29

 

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

Sonnet 29: WordsMy EmotionsExplanation

deaf heaven hopeless, sad, abandoned, aloneThe idea that God might not hear my prayers is the worst thing I could imagine. I would not be able to cope with my problems if I didn’t have faith.

sullen earthdepressed, glum, despondentThis makes me think of patches of frozen mud during winter. It’s cold, and everything is dreary. The only colors in nature in winter are shades of brown and gray. “Sullen earth” is dark, hard, and dull.

lark at break of day arisingPeaceful, joyous, relaxed, eager, energetic, hopefulAs a child, I lived near a forest preserve, and the birds would wake me every morning. It was magical to listen to them twitter and call out to each other as the sky went from gray blue to rosy orange to bright sunshine. I felt safe and happy when I heard these sounds. I still associate joy, serenity, and excitement about the potential offered by a new day when I hear birds’ morning song because that is how I felt when, as a child, I woke up and listened to the birds outside my window.

 

Part C: Now make a second chart. It should have two columns. Go over the poem one more time, and in the left column, list all the symbols that you can find. In the right column, briefly tell some of the characteristics of those symbols. If some of the vocabulary is unfamiliar, look up the words in the Dictionary of Symbols (the link is in the lecture on symbolism).

 

For example, a chart based on Sonnet 29 would start like this:

Symbol Characteristics

hymns Happiness, joy, lyrical, praise, worship

hymns Entrance to paradise, door to God’s home, beautiful place, perfection

kings Powerful, rich men

bootless cries Sadness, anguish, hopelessness, depression

 

Part D: Go over all the notes that you have made (paragraph + two charts), and write at least one-half page (175 words) discussing how symbols are used in the poem you chose for this assignment. How do the symbols enrich the poem and deepen your understanding of its meanings? Remember to provide evidence for your claims in the form of excerpts (a word, phrase, or line, as appropriate) from the poem.

 

Part E: You are ready to put it all together! Assemble the materials from Parts A, B, C, and D into one document. You will have a paragraph, two charts, and a discussion of at least a half page in length. Remember that claims in all parts of the assignment should be substantiated by excerpts from appropriate sources. Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries used in the assignment should be arranged according to APA rules of style, and in-text and reference citations should be provided, also formatted in APA style. Quoted material should never exceed 25% of the document. Post the final document in the Discussion Area.The following is the poem and information about the poem.

Walt Whitman 1819–1892

 

Born on Long Island and raised there and in Brooklyn, Walt Whitman was introduced to words and books through his work in the printing trade from the age of 12. After working as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse on Long Island, he took up journalism full-time in 1841. In 1855, he published the first edition of Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems that he would expand and revise for the rest of his life. Whitman’s use of free verse and his celebration of democracy and of physical sensation were groundbreaking and controversial. Strongly affected by the Civil War, Whitman nursed the wounded in Washington, D.C., while working as a government clerk. “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” was published in 1865 in Drum Taps, a new volume in Whitman’s ever-expanding masterpiece, Leaves of Grass.

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

 

    When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in    columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add,    divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he    lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

    5 How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself, In the mystical moist night-air, and from time    to time, Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.