Eden Rock
Eden Rock is a place which symbolizes the afterlife. This is not made explicit, of course, as everything in the poem is an exercise in ambiguity and creation of mood. The mood is strongly indicative of this central symbolism of the poem, however, especially as result of the obvious connect to the Garden of Eden.
Tweed and Terriers
When it comes to symbols of British conservatism, things don’t get distilled down the essentials more than the Genuine Irish Tweed worn by the speaker’s father and the little fox-hunting breed of dog at his side. This vision practically screams out the very model of a typical conservative British of the 20th century. Or does it? Another way to interpret the father’s appearance is that it is a portrait of the very model of the stereotype of such a gentleman. Everything else in the poem seems just a little “off” somehow, as if existing in a twilight zone-esque reality so this absolute perfect model of British conservatism may not be quite the accurate portrayal of the father as it might seem.
H.P. Sauce bottle
H.P. Sauce is not a milk product. It is roughly equivalent to the status (not the taste) of Heinz Ketchup in America: an iconic product of dinner table rituals. And yet it is milk that is pouring from this condiment bottle. That the original product itself is an iconic representative of British dining that has been repurposed for an alternative use may possibly be intended as symbolic clue to the actual generation age of the parents. They are young at Eden Rock, but this seemingly unnecessary recyclable utilization of such a commonly found household object might be intended to identify them specifically as a member of the World War II generation which learned to live with less finding new uses for existing things. Not coincidentally, perhaps, the author would have been the same age as the father in the story—twenty-five—smack dab in the middle of World War II.
The Number Three
The numeral three recurs several times throughout the poem: the mother is twenty-three, she sets three places for the picnic, the story features three characters, and the sky is described as strange kind of white “as if lit by three suns.” One interpretation is that this focus on three represents the Christian Trinity.
The Stream
The mother and father beckon the son to the other side of the stream, urging passage with soothing of his fears that “Crossing is not as hard as you think.” The concept of “crossing” over to the other side—the afterlife—after death as something to fear needlessly makes the symbolism here obvious enough.
