Imagery

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Imagery
Feature Menu
What Is Imagery? Imagery and Feelings Practice
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What Is Imagery?
An image is a representation of anything we can
touch
smell
see
taste
hear
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What Is Imagery?
Imagery is language that

• appeals to our five senses

• creates images in our minds

Give me the splendid silent sun, with all his
beams full-dazzling  Give me juicy autumnal
fruit, ripe and red from the orchard  Give me a
field where the unmowd grass grows  Give me an
arbor, give me the trellisd grape from Give Me
the Splendid, Silent Sun by Walt Whitman
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What Is Imagery?
Quick Check
To which senses does this passage appeal?
It must be on charcoal they fatten their fruit. I
taste in them sometimes the flavour of soot. And
after all really theyre ebony skinned The
blues but a mist from the breath of the wind, A
tarnish that goes at a touch of the hand. from
Blueberries by Robert Frost
End of Section
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What Is Imagery?
Quick Check
To which senses does this passage appeal?
It must be on charcoal they fatten their fruit. I
taste in them sometimes the flavour of soot. And
after all really theyre ebony skinned The
blues but a mist from the breath of the wind, A
tarnish that goes at a touch of the hand. from
Blueberries by Robert Frost
Sight
Taste
Touch
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Imagery and Feelings
Poets may use imagery to convey a feeling about
their subject or to create a certain mood.

• What feelings do T. S. Eliots images of fog
  evoke?

The brown waves of fog toss up to me Twisted
faces from the bottom of the street, And tear
from a passer-by with muddy skirts An aimless
smile that hovers in the air And vanishes along
the level of the roofs. from Morning at the
Window by T. S. Eliot
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Imagery and Feelings
Now read Carl Sandburgs lines about fog.

• How does the speaker of this poem feel about fog?
  How is that feeling different from that Eliots
  imagery creates?

The fog comes on little cat feet.    It sits
looking over harbor and city  on silent haunches
and then moves on. from Fog by Carl Sandburg
End of Section
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Practice
Think of an object or scene, and
then choose a particular mood. Jot down
imagerysensory wordsrelated to your object or
scene and mood. Your notes can be raw material
for a poem.
Object or scene
Mood
Sights
Smells
Sounds
Tastes
Touch
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The End