objective correlative

plural objective correlatives

1. A physical representation or manifestation of an abstract concept; especially, a symbolic artistic representation of a particular emotion, feeling etc.

   Eleven years later, in 586, after another senseless revolt, Jerusalem was destroyed and Yahweh's temple, his objective correlative on earth, was burned to the ground.

   2009, Karen Armstrong, The Case for God, Vintage, published 2010, page 46

   1 more example

   Neil Young invented strung-out country-rock in 1975 with his album Tonight's the Night, its bittersweet desolation finding an objective correlative in the setting of America's south-western desert states.

   2007 February 2, Mat Snow, The Guardian