No one dares to go outside and face the horse and the majority of the people chose to stay inside and hide. In the poem 'The War Horse’’, the narrator and the rest of the people in the city where the narrator lived watch as a dark horse runs over their properties, unaffected by anything around him. The description is used here to create a vivid image about the Irish cities in which the narrator lived and also to show how much they were affected in a negative way by the events that took place during her life. This idea appears in the poem 'The Harbor’’ and 'The Pomegranate’’ and in both occasions the narrator is strolling through the said cities. One of the common motif found in a number of poems is the mentioning of the 'city of shadows’’. Because of this, we can assume that the stars are used in this context as a symbol for the universal truths that will remain the same no matter what. The stars transmit stability in this context while human kind is fleeting and temporary. The stars where there long before we came into existence and they will continue to stay in the ether for eternity. In the poem 'Outside History’’, the narrator analyzes the stars that are, according to her, outside time and history as we perceive it. Because the fruit is near the daughter may suggest the idea that she already gave in to the temptations. The pomegranate is used here as a symbol for the temptations the daughter will have to face at one point in her life. Then, the narrator spots the fruit near her daughter on the bed and she is filled with dread, thinking about the person who gave her the fruit.

The narrator sees this fruit towards the end of the poem when she goes to check on her daughter. The major symbol in the poem 'The Pomegranate’’ is the fruit mentioned in the title. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Outside history by eavan boland