Stone and light
In the poem entitled "Anniversary’’, the narrator thinks about the time her lover left her and how she continued to watch the light of the day die away and remember the last words the narrator’s lover told her. The narrator mentions two important elements in the poem: the light and the stone, both being used here as symbols. The light is used as a symbol to make reference to the way the narrator felt during her relationship with her lover while the stone is used as a symbol to suggest the pain she felt after the lover left her.
Nothing is as it seems
One of the common motifs in the poem written by the narrator is the idea that nothing is as it seems at a first glance. This appears in many poems as a warning to the reader, urging them to not let themselves be fooled by appearances. This appears as a common motif in the poems "Anniversary’’ and "In the Park’’.
Warmth as a symbol for love
In the poem entitled "Last Meeting’’, the narrator links her breakup with winter and the feeling of love with warmth. The association is made numerous times in the poem to the point where warmth becomes a symbol for love. The reason why these two elements are associated is because of the warm feeling a person experiences while in love.
Symbol for protection
In the poem entitled "Barn Owl’’ the narrator leaves her home in the middle of the night to hunt for an owl in her barn. In the first stanza, the narrator admits that she is doing this without her parent’s knowledge, agreeing that her parents most likely think that their daughter is in her bed, sleeping and safe. The house the narrator left is used as a symbol for the protection offered to a child by the family in which the child lived and also by the protection offered by the house in which the child lived in.
Symbol for the violence of death
After the narrator reaches the barn in the poem entitled "Barn Own’’, the narrator wastes no time and tries to shoot the old owl which lived in the barn. The narrator hits the owl in one of its wings and the narrator has to watch mortified, as the owl struggles to fly with one of its wings shot. The narrator throws away the gun, scared at what just happened and from that point on, the gun becomes a symbol used by the narrator to suggest the violent nature of death.
