How to Describe Sadness Through Symbolism
- Birdsong gone silent
- Black fog that seems to be consuming everything
- Bleak and barren surroundings
- Book with the last pages torn out as if the story ended too soon
- Broken branch blown to the ground
- Broken compass – a symbol of being lost and confused in the face of sorrow
- Broken heart or locket
- Broken, abandoned, or old things
- Cold wind – the chill of sadness gripping the heart
- Colder temperatures
- Darker, cloudy weather
- Darkness – the opposite of light, a representation of sadness
- Dead flowers
- Dim lantern in the darkness
- Dim, gloomy atmosphere
- Empty space that cannot be filled
- Heart with cracks in it – a symbol of broken sorrow
- Image of a broken clock or time that seems to have ceased
- Light suddenly being extinguished
- Lonely house – a symbol of a person’s loneliness in the face of sadness and despair
- Loss of natural beauty
- Overwhelming feeling of hopelessness
- Rain – a symbol of sadness and tears
- Rain, storms, or snow
- Raindrop sliding down a window
- Shadow falling over the world
- Shadow stretching across the sky
- Shattered glass scattered across a floor
- Single leaf falling
- Sky without stars
- Slow, dreary cadence
- Storm or stormy weather – the intensity and overwhelming presence of sadness
- Sunlight slowly disappearing
- Taste of ashes
- Tear stain on an otherwise clean shirt
- Tear trickling down cheeks
- Things that may remind the character of what once was, only serving as a painful reminder of what no longer is
- Things that once brought joy are now faded
- Wilting flower that once bloomed
- World painted in grey