what do these items symbolize in the self reliance by waldo emerson?

Question

self reliance question. this is a tricky one

A. planting corn
B. an iron string
C. clay


can someone help me out

Answer 1

a. corn = the rewards of hard work

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil on that plot of ground which is given to him to till."

b. iron string = belief in one's own thoughts
"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string."

c. clay = strength
"And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not pinched in a corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but redeemers and benefactors, pious aspirants to be noble clay, plastic under the Almighty effort, let us advance and advance on Chaos and the Dark."