Imagery and Symbolisms in The Love Song of J Alfred Pulfrock - Essay Example

At the same time, these could be symbols in a way that it collectively describes the speaker’s past, as full of regrets and wasted opportunity, especially in taking risks for intimate relationships. Using descriptive devices, such as sensory details, further developed the feeling of insecurity the speaker has, saying: "with a bald spot in the middle of my hair” (Eliot 39).

Images and symbols go hand in hand; however, they can exist without the presence of the other. Like Eliot’s work, the poem “Constantly Risking Absurdity” written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, is built around imageries, symbolism, and a few allusions. According to Edward Kent, Ferlinghetti’s poem is the writer’s definition of a poet, as he performs “like an acrobat” (Ferlinghetti 6) every time he writes. It is the poet’s duty to present the unshakable truth to his audience, and if he fails to do this, he would fall to his death just like what a careless acrobat can become (Kent 1244). To give a general view of Ferlinghetti’s poem, it is parallel to the objective correlative principle of symbolisms and imageries. The whole text is attached to the main imagery of a circus-like life while incorporating elements concerning entertainment, the truth, and acrobatic actions such as “death-defying leaps” (Ferlinghetti 27).

The first two poems mentioned are generally attached to symbols and images as one and the same poetic device. Gary Soto’s poem, “Teaching English from an Old Composition Book” would be different. The images are well-used to uplift the theme of the poem and do not necessarily have hidden meanings. It basically talks about the struggle of Mexican-American students who do not have the access to the English language, and the teacher cleverly shifts his strategy. This is shown in the second stanza where the speaker decides to have “a pantomime of sumptuous living” (Soto 23). It tells the importance of language and how it affects a person.

The poems are constructed in a way that the poet thought should be, for the development of its message. It would not be logical to say that one poem is better than the other because the poets have different purposes on the giving of images and symbolisms or with the restraint of showing off emotions. All three are based on the importance of images and symbols as either united or separated poetic elements that could affect the poem’s content.