The Phases of symbolism

In class today we talked about passages in Frye's book which describe some of the phases of symbolism.

Literal (motif)- "And if a poem cannot be literally anything but a poem, then the literal basis of meaning in poetry can only be its letters, its inner structure of interlocking motifs." Ben pointed out this passage. The passage that explained it the best for me was this one. "Understanding a poem literally means understanding the whole of it, as a poem, and as it stands." Literal means that the poem is nothing but the poem itself. When describing "The Idea of Order at Key West" one can only respond with, "She sang beyond the genius of the sea..."

Descriptive (sign)- "Descriptively, a poem is not primarily a work of art, but primarily a verbal structure or set of representative words, to be classed with other verbal structures like books on gardening." Dustin pointed out this quote. It means that the descriptive phase is concerned with saying things as clearly and unambiguously as possible. It is also concerned with realistic tendencies and being didactic or teaching something. "Literature deeply influenced by the descriptive aspect of symbolism is likely to tend toward the realistic in its narrative and toward the didactic or descriptive in its meaning."

Formal (image)- This phase is concerned with hypothetical events and representations of representations as pointed out by Maggie. "One could hardly find a more elementary critical principle than the fact that the events of a literary fiction are not real but hypothetical events. For some reason it has never been consistently understood that the ideas of literature are not real propositions, but verbal formulas which imitate real propositions."


We also had a tragedy occur in our classroom today, I will relate this "story" to you now. We had the murdering of an innocent fly by Alex in the front row occur only after the fly viciously attatched itself to the side of Dr. Sexson's head in an attempt to dig out the plug to the storage container that holds all of the seemingly endless poems that Dr. Sexson has memorized. The fly was working covertly and alone in his burglary attempt. No one in the class noticed this thief of knowledge and as Dr. Sexson shook his head the fly escaped unharmed, or so it seemed, from his head almost causing a heart attack. The fly then tried to seek cover in Karrie's hair since she, knowing all the answers, would be the next logical brain to steal from in our classroom. Karrie however noticed the fly and brushed him away violently so she could protect her endless amounts of information. The fly, looking for more smart people, found the top of Alex's desk where the hand of justice came crashing down on the dirty crook!

*** This account was based on a true story.**