Symbol:The symbol is the most complex metaphorical device of word game. In its simplest sense, it is a comparison between a concrete entity and an abstract idea. So, the ‘rose’ as representing ‘love’, ‘youth’ or ‘beauty’, is a symbol. But, in its deeper meaning any object, image, event, story, or anything that can be interpreted as having broader conceptual meaning outside the literal meaning is said to be symbolic. In that sense, anything in a poem that must be, or can be, interpreted in relation to general ideas of life and reality is a symbol.
            In one sense all words are symbolic because a sound sequence (concrete) represents an idea or concept (meaning); but in poetry, symbols are usually images with conventional meanings. The rose, clay, sky, spring, Cupid and dove are some examples. All these have conventional symbolic meanings. However, poets can also create their own symbols called ‘private’ symbols. If we can not give literal meaning or conventional symbolic meaning to a word (or any element of character, situation, speech, event etc.) in a poem, it is necessary to give it a ‘private’ symbolic meaning. Poets create private symbols with pressing implications, often repeated and reinforced.
            Most poems have symbolic meanings. Anything with a range of meaning beyond itself is symbolic in poetry. Most poets make a partial analogy between images and ideas. We should supply the missing part and give it plausible meaning by exploring the situation and interpreting with the help of clues. Sometimes the whole poem stands only in symbolic relation with life and reality. WB Yeats’ "The Dolls" is such an example.
A doll in the doll-maker’s house
Looks at the cradle and bawls:
“That is an insult to us”….
Everyone knows that a doll can not bawl (shout aggressively) and say that the child in the cradle is an insult to the dolls, in the real world. Now, it is necessary to interpret the symbolic meaning of the ‘doll’, its ‘shouting’, the ‘cradle’ and child it is referring to, and also in what sense the child of the doll-maker is an ‘insult’ to the dolls. This means that the whole situation, the characters, the actions and the like are all symbolic. If we read the poem carefully, we find out that the doll symbolizes the world of ‘art’ and the artist’s experience of the perfectly beautiful, ideal and satisfying existence. In contrast to the doll’s symbolic world of permanence, pleasure and perfection, the child in the cradle symbolizes the practical world of the artist’s family, the world of all the trouble, pain, burden and responsibility. Now, the talking of the doll also represents the symbolic speaking of the artist’s consciousness: living in the two worlds, he becomes conscious of the difference of reality and art, burden and beauty, problems and perfection. That is the symbolic sense in which the doll speaks to him.
            The symbol requires the reader to be more tactful and resourceful.

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. For example, if a poet says, "The moon is ‘smiling’ at me", he animates the moon. Read More...

Ballad:originally a kind of folk song; also sung with music; now recorded in writing, and also regarded as literature/ poetry. Read More...

Blank verse: Blank verse refers to the poetic lines that use iambic pentameter without rhyming. Read More...

Classical Poetry:The classical or neo-classical poets of the eighteenth century had had made poetry more social than personal, more intellectual than emotional and imaginative, more rule-based than spontaneous. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...