SYMBOLISM IN POETRY
JAYANT. V. JOSHI
M. N. College, Visnagar
If
there is any essential difference between prose and poetry, it is that prose is
descriptive and poetry is suggestive. According to W. B. Yeats, “All art, that
is not portraiture or mere story-telling is symbolic.” Poetry can be considered
an art of words. As a painter selects colours of different shades to make a
portrait expressive of a particular feeling, a poet selects words to make his poem
effective. He cannot afford to give direct statement in his poem, as it would
require many words and still such prolixity would be quite inadequate to
express everything that the poet wants to say. Therefore, he has to realise the
motto, “Minimum of means to produce maximum of effect.” This means he should
make use of words which stand for more than their surface-meanings. Their very
suggestiveness should rouse a flock of associations in the mind of a reader. In
the words of Stephane Mallarme, the leader of the French Symbolist movement, “My
aim is to evoke an object or deliberate shadow without ever actually mentioning
it, by allusive words, never by direct words.” Thus, symbolism in poetry, encourages
an expansion of thought, image, emotion or association. It functions in poetry
in two ways; it makes poetry precise and at the same time it invites a reader
to share with the poet’s poetic experience.
W.
B. Yeats, in one of his essays on symbolism, quotes these two lines by Burns
for their symbolic perfection:
“The
white moon is setting behind the white wave,
And
Time is setting with me, O!”
Every word of these two lines, has its own
significance for conveying melancholy beauty. The whiteness of the moon and the
wave suggest the whiteness of the hair of the old poet who sadly with a cry,
‘O’ bewails the setting of Time. The moon, the wave, their whiteness, setting
Time and the last melancholy cry evoke an emotion which cannot be evoked by any other arrangement of
words.
The
impact of Psychology is so heavy on the mind or a modern poet that he, too,
applies Freudian method of psycho-therapy in poetry. Mind has a number of layers–the
conscious, the sub-conscious and the unconscious. Thoughts, feelings and
emotions which are buried in the subconscious are brought to the surface by the
technique of evocation. A poet, by using symbols in his poem, rouses a chain or
thoughts and association in the mind of a reader. These evoked emotions may not
have any logical link and so the whole process of evocation is known as “Free
Association.” This process may seem to be difficult for a reader as his
associations with a given image or a symbol may not be entirely identical with
those of a poet. This does not mean that the poet says one thing and the reader
means quite another; for there is always a general identity in thoughts and
feelings of the poet as well as of the reader. The following illustrations will
make this quite clear:
In
“Gerontion”, T. S. Eliot presents a sketch of the mind of an old man whose
thoughts take him to his youth, the days of his glory. While thinking about
religious experience of his youth he says,
“In
the juvescene of the year, came Christ, the tiger,
In
depraved May, dogwood and chestnut flowering Judas.”
Both
these lines are an illustration of a fine blending of the symbol and myth. If
symbols make a poem compressed, the reference of a myth makes it clear and
effective as a poet appears to popular imagination by resorting to myths and
legends which he might choose for symbolic expression from epics or scriptures
with which his readers are quite familiar. Here, in these lines, May, the juvescene
of the year, naturally stands for youth of the old man. A young mind is always
prone to passions and sensual desires, whereas religion demands fortitude. In
prime of his youth, the old man was highly influenced by Christ, the Saviour, and so he became an easy prey to
Christ, who like a tiger inspired awe and compelled the young man to be
ascetic. When a passionate, sensual young man becomes an ascetic, it is like
spring turning to autumn, May becoming depraved. In the same line the poet refers
to Judas and flock of associations attached with the myth of Judas–how he
became a favourite disciple of Christ, how he betrayed Him with a kiss only for
thirty pieces of silver and how he hanged himself on a tree in repentance–comes
to our minds. As Judas betrayed his Master, passion and desire betrayed the old
man when he was young and made him a traitor to his Master, but again, like
Judas, he was repentant for his misdeeds. How beautifully the symbol and myth
work here!
The
same old man in “Gerontion,” recoils the sweet
memories of the past. He remembers that a Japanese gentleman and a lady
met him. He also remembers that he
met another lady who expressed her love for him.
But now, all these thoughts of the past are quite worthless for the tired brain
of the old man and this is symbolically expressed in these few words,
“Vacant
shuttles
Weave
the wind.”
The
words with alliterative charm are obviously an excellent example of an apt use
of the symbols–shuttles and wind.