The objective of this unit is to practise your listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills through learning about the
literary technique of symbolism and how it is used by the author Kim Muncey in the poem Winter Mourning.
Symbolism refers to the literary use of symbols to represent ideas. The idea may not be mentioned in the text at all but
an object or sign suggests it.
Some symbols are universal and will be recognized by people everywhere. Symbols also vary from culture to culture and may change
over time. Similarly, more than one symbol may be associated with a particular idea.
Symbols can be divided into groups. Some examples are:
- Literal - a bank book could represent wealth or poverty, depending on the
context
the author chooses
- Imaginative - the meaning the author associates with a particular symbol
- Natural - rain may represent fertility or the renewal of life; a mountain (stability); a dove (peace); a rose (love)
- Conventional - symbols which people have agreed to accept as standing for a specific idea: the red cross and red crescent
represent an international federation of humanitarian societies that respond to large-scale emergencies throughout the world
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