The poem, Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda contains powerful symbols, metaphors, and motifs. Perhaps the most powerful symbol Pablo Neruda uses in his poem, Keeping Quiet is the clock face. The twelve divisions on the clock face describe the twelve months in a year and twelve hours in the day. When the hour hand and the minute hand touch the 12th division on the clock face, it symbolizes a split moment when time on the Clock face comes to a stop, a pause, even if it is for a split moment. The second most important symbol used by Pablo Neruda is that of Mother Nature, nature as a teacher, and the Earth as the bedrock of life. The whole poem discusses, among other things the need to learn from nature, and the need to protect nature for example he says, 'Perhaps the Earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.' Earlier in the poem, Pablo Neruda talked about how keeping quiet would thwart 'Those who prepare green wars', suggesting that keeping quiet would prevent the destruction of nature - 'green wars'.
My Mother at 66 is another poem that contains symbols, motifs, and metaphors. For Kamala Das the 'late winter's moon' symbolizes old age senility, and is a metaphor marking the end of a life cycle. The poem describes the fragility of relationships, especially when faced with old age, bereavement, and death. Birth, aging, and death are inevitable processes of life; the same that the moon goes through a continuous cycle of waxing and waning. Trees and children symbolize youth in contrast to the 'late winter's moon'.
A Thing of Beauty, an extract from Endymion, written by John Keats contains important symbols, that represent Earthly beauty and the source of Spiritual Beauty. The 'flowery band' mentioned in the extract represents Earthly Beauty that is both fascinating, enthralling, and yet enslaving, trapping, and imprisoning. The poet's warning is that one should not be trapped by earthly beauty lest one should be blinded to the spirituality behind it. It is as if he is saying, don't be blinded by earthly beauty lest you might see the hands of the creator. Another important symbol in the poem is the 'endless fountain' from which the 'immortal drink' of beauty flows down from Heaven. The 'fountain' is the source of spiritual beauty, the source of inspiration, the source of the elixir of life that is sent for us by the Creator of life.
In A Roadside Stand, Robert Frost uses symbols and metaphors to highlight the gaps and divides between the people living in the countryside and those living in the cities. The theatre and the store are symbols of vices of the city folk, enforced on the gullible and innocent people living in the countryside. 'Polished traffic' symbolizes the rich people rushing by in their 'selfish cars'. 'Selfish cars' also symbolize the insensitivity, heartlessness, and vanity of city people who rush under the veneer of prosperity and affluence. The roadside stand itself is a symbol of the poverty, helplessness, and economic backwardness of the people living in the countryside.
Adrienne Rich has used a few interesting symbols in her poem, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers. These symbols represent the aspirations, difficulties, and tribulations of a married woman who is living in a marriage that is overwhelming and debilitating in nature. The tigers on the cloth screen in the poem represent Aunt Jennifer's aspirations, they represent art that transcends time, and the ivory needle represents the chores and duties that Aunt Jennifer needs to fulfill as a married woman. 'Uncle's Wedding Band' represents a difficult marriage, a marriage that is exploitative, debilitating, and enslaving in nature. The 'world of green' represents an ideal world where tigers live peacefully with 'men beneath the tree'.
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