City
In the poem For Each of You, the narrator talks about the need to protect the city each owns. The city in this context is used as symbol to make reference to the individual beliefs every person may have and thus when the narrator talks about the need to protect the city she actually talks about the need to protect one’s beliefs.
The spider
In the poem Never to Dream of Spiders, the major symbol used in the poem is the spider that creates webs across memories. Because of this, it is safe to assume that the spider is a symbol for forgetting and by claiming that the spider will not cast its web on the narrator the poet implies that the person in question will not be forgotten.
The hose
Another important symbol in the poem Never to Dream of Spider is the hose that appears at the end of the poem and the hose that turns into a burst of light when it is turned on the person in the poem. The hose is used here as a symbol to suggest the brutality with which black people were treated by the white society. More than often, the black people involved in protests and riots were attacked with hoses by the policemen as a way to control them and thus it could also be used as a symbol to suggest the ways in which society tried to control the black population.
The handprint
In the poem entitles Father Son and Holy Ghost, the narrator talks about the handprint her father left on the doorknob and ho the handprint still existed there even though he died a long time ago. The handprint is used here as a symbol to suggest the way the father influenced his children and also to suggest that his influence was still visible even years later.
The glass
The author mentions how her father used to drink glass after glass everything to forget his wife and try to move on. The glass and alcohol is used here as a symbol for the pain the father was feeling after losing his wife and having to learn how to live on his own.
