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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Face

The speaker intently studies a woman’s face, which over the course of the poem takes on a twofold symbolic importance. In the poem’s first half, the woman’s face symbolizes the philosophical idea that beauty emerges through the harmony of opposites. The speaker makes this point clearly in his comment that, “All that’s best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes” (lines 3–4). In other words, the gleam in the woman’s eyes offset the slightly darker features of her face (i.e., her “aspect”), producing a harmonious balance worthy of the name “beauty.” Two-thirds of the way through the second stanza, the speaker’s thoughts turn away from the theme of harmony. He then begins to contemplate how her face mediates between thought and expression. He describes her face as that place “where thoughts serenely sweet express, / How pure, how dear their dwelling-place” (lines 11–12). Essentially, the speaker is describing how the beauty of the place where the woman expresses her thoughts (i.e., her face) indicates the purity of the place where the thoughts themselves dwell (i.e., her mind). In this regard, the woman’s face symbolizes a relationship between beauty (exterior) and virtue (interior).

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