Seed (Symbol)
The use of the word "seed" in the first stanza suggests both male and female anatomy. Usually, this word is used to refer to sperm, but here it is not entirely clear. The speaker calls it "the selfless, shapeless seed I hold." Either way, it could represent the enmeshment of male and female parts in order to procreate. Another important symbolic resonance this word has is with nature: seeds are the embryonic stage of the plant life cycle. This aligns with the tree and rose metaphors that appear later in the poem.
Crystals (Symbol)
In the third stanza, the speaker continues her list of what "This"—presumably, procreation—is. This stanza focuses particularly on human anatomy and physiology, and the line "the precise crystals of our eyes" offers a magnified and tessellated view of the human eye. A crystal can be defined as a solid whose atoms are arranged in a highly ordered repeating pattern. In the poem, crystals symbolize the physical structures that compose human bodies. This line about "the precise crystals of our eyes" also indicates the structure of a family: the physical body of the child is made directly from the bodies of the parents.
Light (Symbol)
In "Woman to Man," light symbolizes being in the world. Early in the poem, though the zygote (fertilized egg) is not a conscious being, the vital intelligence of its life is able to "[foresee] the unimagined light." In other words, the "unimagined light" will occur at birth. At this point in the poem, the zygote exists "in the night." Light is not yet its reality. Darkness is evoked even in the third line of the last stanza, where the creation of life is described as "the blind head butting at the dark." However, the labor of birth is suggested in the next line: "the blaze of light along the blade." This signifies a change: the baby will soon encounter the light, or in other words, be in the world.
