The word literature has a great meaning in everyday life and comes in so many different ways. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture with the imaginative or creative writing especially of recognized artistic value (Houghton Mifflin Company, 2011) is the dictionary meaning. Lyrics, poems, short stories are all kinds of literature and many authors will write something they are passionate about or have an interest in. Many instances there are times a writer will write about a particular subject or within a certain genre and they write in a manner that sometimes had a hidden meaning. To know the hidden meaning the author will use symbolism, and as a writer and reader it helps to understand the elements that go into writing a poem, short story, and lyric. The writer goes through a process of creating a theme which helps to set the tone and will help them to develop the plot. Many times an author when writing a poem or lyric will not always have a character, but will have some sort of setting that resulted from the theme. All of the elements of literature need to have been put into place, and in many times the writer will also put a hidden meaning into the story, poem, or lyrics which the reader needs to read between the lines. Symbolism can be revealed in the theme, the tone or the plot of the story, poem and lyric. To find the underlying meaning or the symbolism the author is trying to portray the reader needs to be familiar with the elements of literature. The story “Used to Live Here Once” by Jean Rhys, the poem “The Road not Taken”, by Robert Frost, and the poem “My Papa’s Waltz”, by Theodore Roethke, follow the elements of literature, and have the symbolism that if the reader was not familiar with could miss the meaning of the story or poem.
In the arts, the use of symbols to concentrate or intensify meaning, make the work more subjective than objective (The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather