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Comparing The Sick Rose And A Noiseless Spider

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Symbolism is an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions, and states of mind. It originated from Europe in the late nineteenth century and has been used ever since in countless writings. More specifically, symbolism is a prime literary device used by numerous poets. Although symbolism has become an extensive device in poetry, many poets came about expressing it in various unique ways. In this paper we will discuss how two poems, The Sick Rose by William Blake and A Noiseless Spider by Walt Whitman, distinctly convey symbolism but in very unorthodox ways. The short but symbolic poem The Sick Rose by William Blake, is a two stanza, four lines per stanza, anapestic …show more content…

The Sick Rose uses the rose to convey a voluminous meaning but never tells the reader what that symbolism is, leaving the reader to guess and connect on a personal level. The Noiseless Patient Spider tells the reader that the soul is the symbolic element in the poem. Although the reader may not be able to make their own assumptions and connections with this poem, the author was able to emphasize and offer more detail into one subject which can be more powerful. The setup of the two poems is also atypical. In The Sick Rose, the story is one and it flows nicely while in The Noiseless Patient Spider, the poem is split up into two stories. The first part of the story being the spider and the second being the speaker’s soul, which is compared back to the spider at the end. Although there are major differences in how the two poems reveal symbolism there are some similarities. They both use an object, or objects, to indicate meaning of the poems. They also both use a speaker that is a bystander. While they take place in divergent settings, they both have a dark and ironic feeling. The two poems distinctively use symbolism but in unique ways and can be shown through the central theme, diction, form, metaphors, imagery, and

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