Symbolism and Allegory in "Sun and Moon"

401 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Interpretation in literature

The poem, "Sun and Moon," written by Jay Macpherson (b. 1931) is an excellent example of a great poem that its idea is expressed by the author using symbolism and allegory. The true meaning the author tried to get across to his audience was that a man and a woman or a brother and sister that are in love, can only be together when the time is just right.

Characters that are in this poem, although they may not be very dynamic are very important to the theme. The two main, physical characters in this poem are the "sun," a.k.a. the man and the "moon," a.k.a. the woman. These two characters are the focus of all the symbolism used in this poem. Such symbols used are, "He suffers gnawing fires: She in her frost," suggesting fires like the sun and frost like the moon. The other character in this poem is the speaker. The speaker narrates the story from a third person point of view and also sets the tone and mood of the poem. Based on the overall tone of this poem, it appears that the speaker is generally upset about the separation of the "sun and moon" or the man and woman and feels it is a good thing when they are rejoined.

This poem is defined as allegory because of the dual meanings it presents. Even though there is meaning to the actual written words that the sun and moon are a pair that is kept apart by certain forces, that is not the meaning that Macpherson tried to convey. What he really meant was the pair in love can only be together at the perfect time. Macpherson conveys this message by using symbolism. He symbolizes a man and a woman or a brother and sister with the relation of the sun and moon. He also expresses the separation of the man and woman with the separation of the sun and moon by the earth's rotation. Macpherson explains in not so many words that the two in love can only meet when everything is perfect. Using the dual meaning of the sun and moon he shows the joining of the two in love at the perfect time by the alignment of the poles. By this, Macpherson means that the sun and moon only meet when the magnetic poles of the earth line up to form an eclipse.

Show More
Related

  • Bottled up Bitterness in Carolyn Kizer´s Poem Bitch

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    The speaker’s rocky encounter with her ex-lover is captured through personification, diction, and tone. Overall, the poem recaps the inner conflicts that the speak endures while speaking to her ex-lover. She ponders through stages of the past and present. Memories of how they were together and the present and how she feels about him. Never once did she broadcast her emotions towards him, demonstrating the strong facade on the outside, but the crumbling structure on the inside.

    Read More

  • Lessons Learned In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    It's about sunlight. It's about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains and do things you are afraid to do. It's about love and memory. It's about sorrow. It's about sisters who never write back and people who never listen.” -pg. 85

    Read More

  • Two Windmills Essay

    538 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poet begins by describing the scene to paint a picture in the reader’s mind and elaborates on how the sky and the ground work in harmony. This is almost a story like layout with a beginning a complication and an ending. Thus the poem has a story like feel to it. At first it may not be clear why the poem is broken up into three- five line stanzas. The poet deliberately used this line stanzas as the most appropriate way to separate scenes and emotions to create a story like format.

    Read More

  • The Laughing Heart Figurative Language

    480 Words  | 1 Pages

    Figurative Language in used throughout poems so the reader can develop a further understanding of the text. In “The Journey” the author uses rhythm and metaphors throughout the poem. “...as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of the clouds..”(25-27). The author compares the star burning to finding your voice. Rhythm also develops the theme of the poem because throughout the story rhythm is presented as happy showing growing up and changing for the better is necessary and cheerful. In “The Laughing Heart” the author uses imagery and metaphors to develop the theme throughout the book. “There is a light somewhere. It may not be much light but it beats the darkness”(5-7). Always find the good out of everything, even it

    Read More

  • Natural Symbolism in "Blood-Burning Moon"

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are two real conflicts in Jean Toomer's "Blood-Burning Moon." The first is racial, which can be referenced in the very first sentence, and the second is a gender conflict, that subtly unfolds with the main characters' development. In this essay, I will show how Toomer uses vivid descriptions and comparisons of nature to establish these conflicts, and also to offer an explanation of their origin. He writes to argue that these roles, like the earth, are natural and therefore irrefutable. A close reading of the opening paragraph will reveal the sharp contrast between white and black, as it is described in a metaphor of wood and stone.

    Read More

  • Romance de la Luna, Luna

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story of this poem tells about a young boy that is lured in by the sensuousness of the moon, and then dies because of his own desire for her. The symbolic meaning is much more hidden and disguised by the literary elements of the poem. The storyline and aspects of the literal story add meaning when searching for the figurative meaning. The warning learned from this poem is that infatuation with anything can lead to a downfall. The moon seemed to offer a comfort that attracted him, but it was only a disguise to lead him to death. The passion the young boy felt for the moon can easily be modified to describe the passion a person can feel for anything. The young boy saw safeness in the moon that brought him closer to her. Any obsession will seem to offer the same comforts that the young boy also saw, but this poem warns that death can always disguise itself.

    Read More

  • Female Oppression In Society With Harper's A Double Standard

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Harper begins the poem by detailing the start of the speaker’s relationship with a man, developing it through the use of metaphor and concrete diction. From the first few lines of the poem, the reader learns that the relationship was destined to be futile through Harper’s use of metaphor: “If when standing all alone/ I cried for bread a careless world/ pressed

    Read More

  • Symbols and Symbolism in A Raisin in the Sun – Dream Symbolism

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, portrays the life of a black family living in a bad section of Chicago. There are many problems in this family, but mostly it revolves around the character of Mama and how she longs to give her family a better life through the money she receives when her husband dies. Also, the family deals with the racism in Chicago in the 1950's complicating the realization of Mama's dreams for the family as well as other family conflicts that come up when money is entered into the equation.

    Read More

  • The Sleeper Literary Analysis Essay

    1056 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first literary device that can be found throughout the poem is couplet, which is when two lines in a stanza rhyme successfully. For instance, lines 1-2 state, “At midnight, in the month of June / I stand beneath the mystic moon.” This is evidence that couplet is being used as both June and moon rhyme, which can suggest that these details are important, thus leading the reader to become aware of the speaker’s thoughts and actions. Another example of this device can be found in lines 16-17, “All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies / (Her casement open to the skies).” These lines not only successfully rhyme, but they also describe a woman who

    Read More

  • A Raisin In The Sun Symbolism Analysis

    785 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symbols are often employed in order to highlight the theme of a play. Playwright Lorraine Hansberry uses several symbols in her 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun. Though there are several symbols used throughout the play, Hansberry uses three main symbols to convey her messages. The three main symbols seen in A Raisin in the Sun are the breakfast eggs, the new house and garden, and Mama's plant.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of All That Time By May Swenson

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the first stanza, “one leaned on the other as if to throw her down” symbolism has been used to show the intensity of the embrace between the two. In stanza two, “and finally almost uprooted him” symbolism has been used to show how much the female dominates in this relationship. “He was thin, dry, insecure one” this symbolized that the male did not have much power nor say in the relationship.

    Read More

  • Home Burial By Robert Frost And The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock

    1813 Words  | 4 Pages

    As one character closes the door on a relationship in one poem another character on yearns for one in another poem.

    Read More

  • Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... feared time. At times he seemed as if he was angry at the fact that time went by too quick and not enough time allowed him to spend summer with his beloved. Other times he spent glorifying how beautiful his beloved one was and how the beauty can’t ever be taken away. It makes it difficult for the audience to take his reason serious at times because at one point in the poem he seems to have contradicted himself. I found out that this poem had a portion of metaphors, similes, and imagery and personification throughout the entire poem. He begins the poem with a simile and ends it with a personification on the poem.

    Read More

  • Woman Poem Analysis

    827 Words  | 2 Pages

    The three poets convey the feelings of seriousness, happiness, and failure. In the poem “Simile”, Scott Momaday explains how people and the actions we do are similar to animals in which the comparison was towards deer. In “Moon Rondeau” by Carl Sandburg he illustrates that working together in a relationship, you may be able to accomplish a task and generate a strong bond. In the final poem “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni she displays how one may want to grow and be someone special to your significant other but they may not care of what their other may want. The three poets are illustrating the theme of humans being similar to animals in which case they either work together or they just ignore each other within the literary similarities and differences of the three poems.

    Read More

  • “The Sun Rising” Analysis

    1276 Words  | 3 Pages

    “The Sun Rising” by John Donne is an aubade all about two lovers getting woken up by the sun when all they want to do is lay in bed all day. The entire poem is the speaker, presumably Donne himself, is talking to the sun and telling him to go away. This poem is broken into three stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABBACDCDEE. Each of those stanzas represents what Donne is telling the sun to do, which is, to go away, I am stronger than you, and that he and his lover are the center of the world. He uses diction all throughout the poem to emphasize that the sun is not welcome in waking him and is lover and throughout all three stanzas to make his three points and to give the overall points of the poem. There are many metaphors used all through the poem and one overall metaphor.

    Read More

More about Symbolism and Allegory in "Sun and Moon"

Open Document