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Unit 3: The Touchstone of Poetry Imagery

AP English IV

Imagery

Imagery is the painting of pictures in the readers mind through the use of language.

Because poetry is such a condensed form of language, poets tend to make greater use of imagery than novelists. Images take a variety of forms.
They can:

Use a comparison between one thing and another, to develop the picture that is created. This type of image includes similes and metaphors. Create sound pictures, by using words that make a sound like the thing that is being described, or that add rhythm to the poem. Examples of this type of imagery include alliteration and onomatopoeia.

Using Imagery

When you use imagery in your own poetry, you must take great care to create suitable images. Clichd images that you will have encountered before, such as as white as snow or as big as a house are uninspired; the best images are original and thought provoking.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
I caught this mornings minion, kingdom of daylights dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 - 1889)

Analyzing Imagery

Avoid simply listing the images that the poet uses. For each image you discuss, you should consider:

What type of image is being used.


Why this particular image is being used. What the effect of this image is on the reader. How the image contributes to the poem as a whole. When you analyze imagery, you should suggest a possible interpretation, rather than stating your ideas as definite.

Basic Images

Although the images below are described as basic, they are by no means easy to use or to analyze. They are, however, the most simple forms of imagery that you will come across.

Simile: A comparison between two things, using the words like or as as a . Metaphor: A comparison between two things, where one is said to be the other. Alliteration: The use of repeated consonant sounds to create a sound picture.

Advanced Images

The images below are less common, but many poets make use of them.

Extended Metaphor: A metaphor is extended to run throughout a poem or piece of prose. Onomatopoeia: A word that sounds like the thing it describes, for example ow! or crash! Assonance: The use of repeated vowel sounds to create a sound picture. Personification: Giving human attributes to an inanimate thing.

Sunday By Nikki Giovanni hot rolls in a summer basket fried chicken piled on the platter lemons squeezed for lemonade blackberries sugared for pudding 2 3 4 5 6 8 1

corn on the cob is steaming in butter green beans surrounding a ham hock salt and pepper and hot sauce too 7 after all it's Sunday

Sunday By Nikki Giovanni hot rolls in a summer basket fried chicken piled on the platter lemons squeezed for lemonade blackberries sugared for pudding 2 3 4

Connotation vs. Denotation: Sunday is the day of rest and a time for family.

corn on the cob is steaming in butter green beans surrounding a ham hock salt and pepper and hot sauce too 7 after all it's Sunday

5 6 8

Imagery: The speaker uses images of hot food to entice the senses and appeal to our sense of taste, sight, and smell. These images invoke the feeling of family, in addition to rest and relaxation, her words flowing with smooth ease.

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