Inteqrative Humanism Journal - Ghana
Vol l;No. 2 September, 2011
IMAGERY AND SYMBOLISM IN POETRY: PERSPECTIVES IN
AESTHETICS
Christian C. Emedolu, Ph.D.
Abstract
Imagery and symbolism are two fundamental figures of speech that the poet
employs to convey his thoughts. Imagery is so important to such an extent that
without it poetry becomes barren and out of tune with nature and human
sensibility. For its part, symbolism is next of kin to imagery; for symbols
necessarily evoke images. It is our task in this paper to re-state or demonstrate the
importance of imagery and symbolism in a world where real poetry makes little or
no sense to an average educated mind. Exposition and critical synthesis are the
methods deployed in this paper.
1.
Preamble
Within the prospect of use of language in poetry we discover that the poet
is somewhat the master of his diction. Most elitist scholars do go to poetry for
abundant harvest of words and expressions. Yet one fact must be properly
understood, namely, that the poet is not necessarily engaged in some form of
word-bazaar, nor seriously concerned with a display of rhetorical one-upsman-
ship game of some bullshitting philosophers and word-intoxicated lexicographers
or linguists. The poet, as a matter of fact, is basically committed to life itself, he
pours out the full worth of life from his chest of vocabulary range. In other
words, we may say that the poet mainly dialogues with the immortal spirit of man
as he transits from nature to literature or/and orature, as the case may be.
Concatenation of words is merely an expressive device to hoodwink the audience
into his private emotive life.
That the poet dares to contrive and use to its fullest some figurative
expressions is something that most people seldom appreciate. This is somewhat
brought about by mental indolence whose only cure is diligence and attention to
the way the poet uses language. In what follows, then, we will present the two
most intricate ways the poet weaves or manipulates his ideas through the use of
figures of speech, namely, imagery and symbolism.
2.
Imagery
Imaging is the summit of poetry - a life-giving mechanism in the making
of rhythmic verses. It is that sophisticated literary device in the quarry of poetic
creativity. It is an evocative procedure, a painting of pictures in the human mind
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through the use of words - more in the manner of mental picture of sensation.
An image or range of images in the mind helps to clarify the meaning and worth
of every poetic experience. This is precisely why we say that in poetry "Being"
and "Meaning" are isomorphous.
It should be noted that the following three terms can be distinguished, one
from the other. They include imagination, imagery and image. The lowest
common differentiation is that the psychological principle or concept of
imagination, as it is, is hugely wider and larger in its process, contents and
understanding than the simple idea of imaging in poetry. Imagination, to be
precise, is a broad faculty of the mind that makes use of ideas stored in the
memory. This special faculty combines • or recombines ideas into different
complex (and sometimes bizarre) forms or structures. Imagery, for its part, is only
a range of poetic images pointing to one particular frame of reference or another.
Be that as it may, simple or complex mental images or pictures could be created
through the use of simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, and so on. "And
it is invariably a quality of the poetic mind that it seeks and seizes relationships,
and works by the perceptions of analogies, likening the abstract to the concrete or
the concrete to the abstract, or one abstraction to another abstraction, or one
concrete thing to another concrete thing, as it clarifies and evokes different
qualities of experience."' It pays the poet, therefore, to paint original pictures of
his own personal experiences rather than groping and consistently copying readmade images. The immediate benefit is that, this transforms his poetry into a
living organism and brings it closer to Nature.
On the whole, imagery, as succession of images, should be part and parcel
of the theme of any poem worth its salt: not just as mere decorative device, but as
an enforcer of meaning. In the words of Christopher Reaske, "images define
atmosphere, and they support the theme... usually images participate in a larger
'pattern of imagery'... A poet uses images to create an atmosphere in accord with
the particular meaning of what is happening in the poem."^ At any rate, Samuel
Coleridge presents his own view on images in the domain of poetry as he writes:
Images, however faithfully copied from Nature, and as accurately
represented in words, do not of themselves characterize the poet.
They become proofs of genius only in so far as they are modified by
a predominate passion, or by associated thoughts and images
awakened by that passion: or when they have the effect of reducing
multitude to uhity, or succession to an instant: or lastly when a
human and intellectual life is transferred to them from the poet's
own spirit.^
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Furthermore, William Shakespeare, in A Midsummer Night's Dream (V, I, 7-17),
through the mouth of Duke Theseus, wisely speaks of literary imagination thus:
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet.
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman; the lover, all as Frantic.
Sees Helen's beauty in a brown of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling.
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and given to airy nothing
A local inhabitation and a name.
We may deduce from the foregoing Shakespearean assertion that it is
really from the realm of imagination that the poet brings forth bags or baggage of
images; and by so doing he concretizes his imagery. Wrestling with this fact,
William Wordsworth somewhere opined that poetry is not necessarily found in
"the language," but in the "coloration of imagination" depicted by it p.e. by the
poetic language). On this assumption then revolves the merits of poetic
imagination, imagery, and images.
Despite the fact that on the average an "imagery is the piction in words of
sensory experiences, including sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell,"'^ a beginner
in the literary study of poetry must be made to understand clearly or learn to
realize early that "far from being synonymous with 'picture^... the poetic image
may be non-sensory..., or appeal, apart from the eyes, to memories of things
smelt and tasted, heard or touched or, more rarely, to the sense of motion". This
can be exemplified using Emily Dickinson's "But the echoes stiffen", which
"appeals to the senses of hearing and touch, but not at all to the eyes."^
3.
Symbolism
Soaring now on wings of symbolism, it is salient to emphasize that
symbols are equally a quite fascinating figure in poetry. As a matter of fact,
symbolism dignifies and enriches anybody of literary work just as images do.
Pretty clearly, the irony of the whole situation is that when a certain image is
frequently used to designate a particular sense it tends most often to become a
representative symbol of that which it constantly represents or signiEes. For
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instance, the constant or age-long association oflight with that which is good and
darkness with that which is bad has made them the symbols of Good and Evil
respectively. As such, the essence ofsymbolism is signification.
The symbols found in poetry are not just the ordinary empty semiotic
signs or algebraic signs or letters, or what you will. Many things can stand in as
symbols of one thing or another: a "dove," universally, symbolizes "peace"; the
"night" can symbolize "death"; the "tortoise", in the African context, can
symbolize "wisdom" or"cunning", as the case may be (but in the Jewish context,
the serpent is the totem acclaimed "wise and subtle one"). This implies that
communities and even persons are at liberty to pick and choose what signifies
what; yet the symbol-making process must not be something completely arbitrary
and random.
Nevertheless, the poet in his creative originality does not always conform
to the traditional or universal symbol scheme; anything can symbolize any other
thing for him. Unfortunately, it is atthis freedom point that we experience a thick
jungle of difficulty in interpreting poetic symbols. Most often than not, we may
not know whether a particular poet is employing symbol in his poem or not. And
"moreoften (too) the symbol is so general in its meaning that it is able to suggest
a great variety of more specific meanings."^ Most poets are sometimes
inconsiderate and inclement in the way or manner they use symbols; for this
reason we find it excruciating to know when to solicit and elicit the symbolic
from certain poetic verse(s) or line(s). Sometimes it is only the poet who can
afford privileged explanation to his own symbol(s). In any case, this should not
discourage us, for there is no errorin trial: there is always room for every mature
mind engaging studiously in the business of appreciation or interpretation of
poems to bring along with him the circuit box and fuse of his own personal life
experiences, in order to help himanalyze any given piece of poetry.
From the above clues, therefore, one can say with little air of certainty that
there is no scientific exactitude in the business of poetic appreciation after all.
For example, ten different critics analyzing a particular poem may produce ten
different interpretations. But the poet remains the sole master of his own
meaning. Yet this does not mean that the poet is an undisciplined fellow of
obscurity. Indeed a mature poet is well aware of the possibility that he could be
interpreted andunderstood only on the strength of the signal he sends out through
his choice and arrangement of words, and through the general clues he deposits
while plying his trade.
Incidentally, there is a classical but contrary view to the foregoing claim
that the poet is the master of his endeavour. We will not hesitate to present it in
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its raw form. The ancient Athenian Socrates was among the foremost Greek
critics to reduce the efforts of the poets to mere instinct, intuition, or inspiration,
as the case may be. Hence, in Plato's Apology he speaks at length:
After the politicians, I went to the poets, the writers of tragedies and
dithyrambs and the others, intending in their case to catch myself
being more ignorant than they. So I took up those poems with which
they seemed to have taken most trouble and asked them what they
meant, in order that I might at the same time learn something from
them. I am ashamed to tell you the truth, gentlemen, but I must.
Almost all the bystanders might have explained the poems better
than their authors could. I soon realized that poets do not compose
their poems with knowledge, but by some inborn talent and by
inspiration, like seers and prophets who also say many fine things
without any understanding of what they say. The poets seemed to
me to have had a similar experience. At the same time I saw that,
because of their poetry, they thought themselves very wise men in
other respects, which they were not. So there again I withdrew,
thinking that I had the same advantage over them as I had over the
politicians [Italics mine].'
This, in fact, is quite ridiculous, and we should think that it is the
conjectured height of denigration of the poet's ability. It is really appalling that
the actual worth of the poet as a creative genius is being devalued, even to this
contemporary time, by this ancient cancerous Socratic misconception. Of course,
one should not doubt the supreme influence of inspiration, but we must not be
afraid or ashamed to tell people at least that the modem science of creativity (and
psychology of poetry) has given us a better understanding with regard to these
matters. In any case, it is not our duty in this paper to defend the poet and his
craft, for it requires a separate paper to do that. But one thing we do know is that
poetry is an art that challenges the skills and understanding of the poet. And this
explains why most poets feel the need to revise their poems even after
publications. Carol C. Kanar substantiates this claim thus: *The late Anne Sexton,
a poet, said that her poems were never finished. Once they were published, she
still saw room for improvement". ®
4. Poem Analysis to Indicate the Use of Imagery and Symbolism
Below is a poem, entitled "PHELOMENA", containing many figures
related to metaphor, personification, alliteration, imagery, symbolism, and so on.
Only one would but muse
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What Philomena means to me;
None can tell her news,
None can dream or say an' be.
Alightfrom thy galactic bloom
Thou Venus virgin verily fine:
Thyfiery beauty brightens gloom
When the gods arrive to dine.
Philomena means more to me;
An' stands softly elegant:
Tall, dark, some sap-like tree.
So rich, so sweet, so verdant.
At her breast all come to suckle;
It flows, as eternal surging sea:
Thus, vastly reaching out so free;
She glistens with no single wrinkle.
Certain, her shiny beauty shan *t diminish
At twilight: When Years put their wrinkles;
But Time shall empty then unfreakish
To Eternity; an' Death must break her ankles!
A brief attempt at some analysis of the poem shows that it contains a
symbol, "Philomena", which according to the poet's private note signifies the
majesty, beauty,
generosity, and eternity of "Love"; it contains some
personifications: "Love" is generally treated as a woman ("she"), and also in the
final verse "Death" is regarded as having to break her ankles; it contains a
number of metaphors - she is a "tall verdant tree," in another place, "temporality"
is metaphorized as "flowing" to "empty" into "eternity"; and lastly, it contains an
inundation of a range of images: in the second stanza, for instance, there is
created an image of love as a magnificent and fantastically amorous lady of
beauty (that every god - or man - cherishes); in the third stanza, there is an image
of love as a strong protective tree; in the fourth stanza love is seen as a nursing
mother, a vast sea, or an alluring or " inviting" young lady (thus the range of
images in the fourth stanza presents an imagery of irresistible and outreaching
generosity); and in the last two lines of the fifth stanza an image is also created of
Time as a river, containing all that happen in this life, flowing from an imaginary
height and plunging downward as in water falls (or dams). This peculiar image is
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further strengthened when the poet pictures or mirrors Death as falling from that
height, along with other contents, to break her own ankles.
In fact, the poem sample above may be much more complex to an
untrained and uncritical reader; but to an advanced reader it becomes a perfect
example of the inter-twining (or inter-relatedness) of some figurative devices in a
poetic situation. It appears to be one of the mostinteresting image-making poems
of our time. If any reader had followed the poem step by step, he would have
been overwhelmed by such real interplay of "figurations" (so to say): symbol,
images, personification, metaphor, simile, and so on. The dialectics of figures of
speech unveils that similes are condensed metaphors, and that metaphors, almost
always, evoke some form of personification or images; and images help to
substantiate poetic symbols; andthat is why they overlap each other and are often
pretty stressful to disentangle. Perrine properly puts it thus: "image, metaphor,
and symbol shade into each other and are sometimes difficult to distinguish". He
goes further to explain that, "...an image means only what it is, a metaphor
means something other than what it is; and a symbol means what it is and
something more". ^
5.
Conclusion
There are as many poems as there are poets, which contain imagery and
symbolism. Of necessity, one must be very careful to note that the poet does not
always make use of symbols and, therefore, one should train one's mind to read
and observe or discern where and when symbols or other figurative devices are
applied actually. The uniqueness of poetic symbol is that it is often not
announced. And concerning the efficacy of the poet not stating directly whatever
thing he is symbolizing, M^llarme (the founder ofFrench Symbolists Movement)
stipulates categorically (with a tone of finality) that, "to name an object is to do
away with the three-quarters ofthe enjoyment ofthe poem which is derived from
the satisfaction of guessing little by little: to suggest it, to evoke it, that is what
charms the imagination".
Thus far, the major problem of imagery and symbolism that we must take
home after the foregoing exposition and analysis is that of correct interpretation
the poet's intents! Those hidden intents ofthe poet are what often enrich the life
of the lover of serious poetry (notmere nursery rhymes).
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References
1. Elizabeth Drew, Discovering Poetry, New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc.,
1933, p. 147.
2. Christopher Reaske, The College Writer's Guide to the Study of Literature,
New York: Random House, 1970, p. 42.
3. Cf. Elizabeth Drew, Discovering Poetry, p. 154.
4. Leonard and Joanne Podis, Writing:
Foresman and Co., 1984, p. 291.
Invention, Form and Style, Illinois:
5. John Ginger, An Approach to Criticism, London: Hodder and Stoughton,
1970, p. 18.
6. Laurence Perrine, Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 3
rrf
ed.. New York:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1978, p. 627.
6. Plato, "Apology", The Dialogues of Plato, with introduction by Erich Segal,
New York: A Bentam Classic, 1986, p. 8.
7. Carol C. Kanar, The Confident Writer, 4'^ ed.. New York:Houghton Mifflin
Company, 2006, p. 132.
8. Laurence Perrine, Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, p. 625.
10. Cf. Elizabeth Drew, Discovering Poetry, p.77.
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