Symbol for the power poetry gives to a person
In the poem entitled "The Bear’’, the narrator recalls how he spent one winter in the middle of the forest, living on nothing more but frozen congealed bear blood and sleeping in the carcass of a bear which he killed. The blood is mentioned time and time again as being the main source of energy for the narrator and the way through which the narrator survived the harsh winter. At the end of the poem, the narrator compares the blood with the poems he read and thus the blood becomes a symbol. The blood in this poem stands for the power a person feels when creating something.
Symbol for the passage of time
In the poem "Another Night in the Ruins’’, the narrator begins by describing a bird he saw flying over him while he was in the countryside. The image of the bird rose in the narrator memories of his brother and about the ideas he had on the passing of time. The bird is present in the poem only for a moment before it disappears completely and is used here as a symbol to suggest the passage of time.
Underwear
One of the main motifs in the poem "Rapture’’ is the action the female character does over and over again, that is how she looks for her underwear in the drawers near the bed. This action is mentioned three times in the short poem and every time the narrator uses this occasion to describe some aspect of the female.
The hand
The poem "Parkinson’s Disease’’ starts with the description of a woman feeding a man suffering from Parkinson’s. While she feeds him, one of her hands stays on one of the man’s clenched fists, as a sign of affection. The ill man understands this even when the woman does not utter a word and the outside observers become aware of this as well. Because of this, the hand becomes a symbol for the woman’s undying devotion towards the suffering man.
Symbol for love
The main character in the poem "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps’’ is the son of the narrator who comes into his father and mother’s room after a bad dream. Both the mother and the father are happy to take the child beside them, to make him feel as loved and safe as possible. The child is also used as a symbol, representing here the love that existed and continued to exist between the narrator and his wife.
