Unchanging Cairn (Symbol)
The "unchanging cairn" that the speaker observes at his grandfather's funeral symbolizes the inevitability and finality of human death. This symbolism is elaborated in the lines that follow, as the speaker observes "an aaronsrod and blossom," which mirror the lives of humans in that they are "born"—bloom—before growing and eventually dying. Yet, flowers are part of a larger natural process, the changing of the seasons, which sees plant life bloom over and over again, though the individual organisms die each year. Note that the speaker specifically uses the word "an" to describe the flowers, suggesting that they are best understood as part of the larger natural world rather than as individuals, unlike how we might consider humans.
The speaker draws a comparison between the lives of individual humans, which are linear, and the biological world, which occurs cyclically. The "unchanging cairn" therefore draws attention to the fact that the lives of humans are distinct from the rest of the biological world in that we, as unique individuals, only exist once. We are only given one chance to express ourselves and to forge relationships with the people we care about.
Aaronsrod (Symbol)
The aaronsrod in particular is significant for its Biblical meaning. Its name refers to the miraculous walking stick of Aaron, Moses's brother. This is primarily meant to symbolize the grandfather's concealed power, as he was a man who has kept his thoughts and feelings to himself for his entire life. Yet, as we will see later on in the poem, he was actually closely connected to the natural world and lived a life full of feeling and intensity.
Heart (Symbol)
The speaker uses the heart as a symbol of human emotions. The word itself appears four times throughout the poem, usually in reference to the grandfather's refusal to express his innermost thoughts and feelings. We see the heart able to "speak," meaning the action of expressing one's emotions. At the end of the poem, the grandfather experiences peace and calmness when facing death, and "his heart was unafraid." Here, it is less important for the meaning of the poem that his heart stays silent, and more important that the introspection he has performed has caused him to feel peace. The significance of the symbol, however, is the same in that it still refers to the human range of emotions.
