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<p class="entry-title" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Generally, symbolism is the representation of one thing by another. Such representations may concern persons, objects or ideas.</strong></p>
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<p>Symbolism is another way of creating imagery through comparison. This is what metaphor, smiles, personification and metonymy do.</p>
<p>If all these devices create imagery through comparison just like symbolism, what then are the peculiar features that distinguish symbolism as a device in poetry?</p>
<p><strong>COMMON CONVENTIONAL SYMBOLS: </strong>These are objects whose mention alone calls to our minds particular persons, objects or ideas.</p>
<p>Let us look at colour symbols for example. The colour green is generally used to bring to our minds, the idea of freshness (fruits for example), growth and rebirth.The colour red is the conventional symbol for danger. Notice that all signs meant to warn you are usually printed in red.</p>
<p>Some religious symbols are conventional. Wherever you go in the world, the Cross is a symbol of the christian religion.<br>
<strong>SYMBOLISM IN POETRY: </strong>Symbolism in poetry is a complex or sustained metaphor because like metaphor, it is an indirect expression. This indirect expression has a deeper meaning which is not immediately apparent.</p>
<blockquote><p>The poet or writer helps us to get at such deeper meaning by constantly leaving us hints in the body of his writing.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example, instead of talking about a person in prison, the writer may keep describing the prisoner watch how tree branches sway in the wind and how birds fly over the place.</p>
<p>In this case the tree branches, the wind, and the birds are not important themselves as objects but are important hints (symbols) of the yearning for freedom which the prisoner experiences.</p>
<p>This is because the tree branches, wind and birds he watches, move about freely unlike himself.</p>
<p>Another example, <em>Lawino</em> describes her woman rival in <strong>Okot p’Bitek’s</strong><em>‘Song of La Wino’</em> thus:</p>
<blockquote><p>Her lips are red-hot<br>
Like glowing charcoal,<br>
She resembles the wild cat<br>
That dipped its mouth in blood,<br>
Her mouth is like raw yams<br>
It looks like an open ulcer,<br>
Like the mouth of a field!<br>
Tina dusts powder on her face<br>
And it looks so pale;<br>
She resembles the wizard<br>
Getting ready for the midnight dance<br>
She dusts the ash-dirt allover her face<br>
And when little sweat<br>
Begins to appear on her body<br>
She looks like the guinea fowl!</p>
<p>When the beautiful one<br>
With whom I share my husband<br>
Returns from cooking her hair<br>
She resembles<br>
A chicken<br>
That has fallen into a pond;<br>
Her hairs looks<br>
Like the python’s discarded skin</p></blockquote>
<p>In the above lines, the poet consistently (through <em>Lawino’</em>s descriptions) depicts Tina as a woman who does all kinds of things to make her look like a White woman.<span id="more-2309"></span></p>
<p>A few of these things include painting her lips very red, dusting her face with powder and ‘cooking’ her hair.</p>
<p>The picture of Tina is so consistent that the poet’s intention becomes clear: Tina does not belong to the culture of her people. She is alienated. She is the symbol of alienation.</p>
<p>Notice that in the example above, we arrive at the symbolism eventually because Tina’s portrait throughout the poem is not varied.</p>
<p>This consistency of intention in depicting people, objects and ideas is one of the basic distinguishing features between symbols and metaphors. A symbol recurs many times with the same consistent meaning.</p>
<blockquote><p>Another way of advancing the same argument would be to say that when a metaphor occurs many times in a piece of writing and with the same meaning it becomes a symbol.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example, it is true to say that Tina is compared to a white woman.</p>
<p>However, this image of her recurs throughout the poem and sustains the intention to such an extent it ceases to be an ordinary metaphor.</p>
<p>The same kind of argument goes for symbols of the the Cross for Christianity and the Crescent moon for Islam. Wherever and whenever these two images appear they consistently represent Christianity and Islam respectively.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em>by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006049980764&;fref=ufi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">DUMEJES MOMALIFE</a></em></p>
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 Kukogho Iruesiri Samson </a>
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 <div class="be-author-meta be-author-description">KIS, author of two poetry collections, ‘WHAT CAN WORDS DO?’ and ‘I SAID THESE WORDS’, is an award-winning Nigerian writer, photographer, and media professional with experience in journalism, PR, publishing and media management. In 2016, he was listed in Nigerian Writers Awards' list of 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL NIGERIAN WRITERS UNDER 40. The same year 2016, he won the Nigerian Writer’s Award for ‘Best Poet In Nigeria 2015.’ he had also won the Orange Crush 1st Prize for Poetry in 2012. 
He is the CEO of Words Rhymes &; Rhythm LTD.</div>
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