"Symphony in Yellow" By: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde is best known for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. He was arrested and imprisoned for being gay, and died at the age of 46 of meningitis.

          The focus of this poem is the metaphor and symbolism within the phrases and stanzas. We know from just reading the title that the color yellow will play a part in defining the deeper meaning of the poem. Each stanza mentions the color yellow, and within each of the ways the color is mentioned, it portrays a happy or bright meaning for what it is describing. In the second stanza, yellow is used in a way that makes darker objects become viewed as brighter, happier things rather than the dark objects they normally are seen as. For example a "yellow silken scarf" sounds elegant against a "thick fog" that hangs in the air. Now, focusing more on the poem as a whole, we can assume this scene is taking place in the fall season with gloomy weather. The color yellow is used throughout the entire poem, but when we enter the last stanza, the color green is mentioned, a "pale green". The changing of colors could be symbolic of how the seasons may be changing in the poem because in the last line "jade" can also be a color description to demonstrate a change occurring.  If we were to pick out a mood for this poem, the colors and peaceful scene being described in the poem would lead us to feel as though the mood is calm and angelic, with a tone that reflects change in the setting or time of year.