In poetry and literature, symbolism is an artificial creation, if it is imposed by logical device. But done in its true spirit, symbolism acts like a natural shadow to the light of the poem, adding depth and dimension.

Symbolism is the vertical quality of writing, hovering above the moving story line. It is like a chord of music -- a vertical arrangement -- in which two or more notes are singing above each note of the melody. The extra notes supplement the presence of the melody, like the levels of symbolism that supplement a story. In that sense, music can be expressed in a completeness "now."

In a painting, too, there is such a completeness; we can experience the entire composition in a momentary glance. The colors and forms complement one another, like the multi-level parts of a symbolic story, or the harmonious notes in a musical chord.

But unlike a static visual art, our literature and music have movement. This is a horizontal motion through time, creating a continuous analogy. The symbolic level exists temporarily, simultaneously with the script. They images and symbolisms travel together on different levels, like the surface waves and the deep flow of the same stream.

It is the nature of the mind, and the pleasure of creative readers, to look for symbolism in the form of a moral or a meaning. We always look for more in our literature and our lives. And it is the nature of things to contain more than just the obvious value.

Even the single pitch of a musical note has a vertical quality, in the presence of overtones. No naturally occurring pitch is "pure"; that is, when we hear middle C on a piano, the instrument also creates a tone at one octave above middle C, and other higher pitches, because of the physical properties of sound. Although we are not aware of these overtones, they give a richness and a beauty to the sound. So, too, does symbolism add a higher but intimately related aspect of the thing we are experiencing.

While poetry goes horizontally through its progression of words and images in time, there are also overtones of immediate symbolism and continuing analogy. Symbolism, and the depth and significance it implies, is a real part of life -- a natural outgrowth of our mind's quest for the meaning and inter-relatedness in all that we experience, see, hear, and read.