According to yourdictionary.com, "symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea." Instead of directly saying the obvious, writers use symbolism to enrich their poetry. It adds different aspects that will allow the poetry to be appreciated at different levels. In the poems, "Design" by Robert Frost and "I heard a fly buzz-when I died" by Emily Dickinson uses symbolism. They use specific objects throughout their poem to represent a deeper, darker feeling. The significant symbols in these poems are the spider and the fly.
In the first poem, Robert Frost uses a spider to symbolize a picture that’s much bigger then what’s actually being depicted in the story; one that can be described as events that are beyond a person’s control, one that is known as fate. “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,” (Frost). In the beginning of them poem, we are introduced with a spider. The spider isn’t your ordinary spider that one will see every day, instead it’s a white colored spider. When thinking of the color white, images of pure, clean and innocent come to mind. A white spider is quite unusual given that we don’t normally see this mixture everyday. At one point in the poem, Frost creates a scene where the white spider is eating a white moth on a white flower. What’s astonishing about this scene is that they all share a similar color. “What brought the kindred spider to that height, Then steered the white moth thither in the night? What but design of darkness to appall? - If design govern in a thing so small” (Frost). During this particular part in the poem, he makes you question how this can all come together and happen at the same time; how nature can be so beautiful but yet so deadly? The reality of this is that it was all meant to happen the way it did. The fact that the white spider ate the white moth shows that it was designed to happen that way. Its natures design that unfortunately even something so pure and so white cannot escape. “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died-“ (Dickenson). This comes from a poem written by Emily Dickenson. In her poem, she uses a fly as a symbol to represent death. The speaker of the poem is lying in bed at her last moments waiting to die. “The stillness in the room was like the stillness in the air” (Dickinson). Through the author’s words, you are able to feel the mood that’s being described in the room. It feels lonely, cold, and depressing. She is surrounded by all her loved ones who are grieving over her death. The room is silent, all but the sound of the fly buzzing around. The fly is introduced in the beginning of the poem, then goes away for the remainder of the poem, up until the very end. Flies always feed off of when something is rotting or dying. Flies are often associated with death, decomposition, maggots, etc. “With blue – uncertain – stumbling buzz,” (Dickinson). We are given a clear description of the fly here with an emphasis on the sound of the fly. Then we are thrown with the next stanza: “Between the light – and me –,” (Dickinson). During this part, we are learning that the fly has come between the speaker and “the light.” This can mean several things, one being that the light can be a metaphor for what comes after death, and the fly is coming in between that and the speaker. The light can mean the thing we approach and enter when we die. Then comes the fly, who’s interrupting the speaker’s progress towards a peaceful death, or as the poem states, “the comforting beauty of the light.”