"Blackest Face"

The "blackest face of woe" symbolizes the speaker's sadness over his unrequited love (5). When the speaker begins his search for poetic inspiration, he desires to write a poem that describes his experience of loving in secret and loving from afar. Thus, he assumes he will write a poem that dramatizes his "black" (saddened or downtrodden) face, which would mirror his feelings of isolation and lonelieness.

Leaves

Leaves symbolize poetry and other writing. The speaker announces that he studied "others' leaves," referring to leaves of paper on which others' verse was written (7). These leaves ultimately lead the speaker to a creative paralysis, as he is unable to detach himself from the anxiety of literary tradition until his Muse intervenes.

"Fruitful Showers"

The "fruitful showers" that the speaker imagines falling on his "sunburn'd brain" symbolize new sources of inspiration (8). The speaker imagines that, by reading other writers'...