Paper

Week Three Ezra Pound explains to us that a perfect symbol is the natural object, and it needs to be clear so that it makes sense what the symbol is to the readers. In “Snowy Egret” by Weigl, I think his perfect symbol is the egret. While the innocent bird was looking for fish, he got shot and killed. I think this symbolizes that the boy always got in trouble by his dad whenever he didn’t do anything wrong. I believe this because later in the poem, the neighbor explains that the son has been crashed down on for doing things much more minute. I think the boy is scared of his dad, actually terrified, and that’s why he is begging the neighbor not to tell. The dad must be really tough on his son, or he wouldn’t be reacting in the way he did over his dad knowing. I think he may also be scared that his dad will know regardless if the neighbor tells or not because of how loud a shotgun shot is. If it was late at night, he could have woken his dad up, which would probably cause even more punishment then just from killing the egret. So, I think to one degree the egret symbolizes the boy. The boy wanted to bury his evidence so he didn’t get in trouble from his dad. I think this symbolizes him hiding his problems and his issues between him and his dad. He doesn’t want people to know about their issues, so he stays quiet about them and hides them from everyone. When he put the egret carefully is his arm, I think this symbolizes him wanting his dad to be gentle with him and care about him, or at least show he does in other ways then just punishing him. He is so gentle with the bird after killing it, and he just wants some sort of comfort. The neighbor wanted to shake loose the words from the boy’s lips, because he knows how his dad treats him, but he just wants him to tell it. I think the dad may even abuse him, but the neighbor wants the boy to let someone know, instead of just taking further actions without the boy knowing.