Citation
Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 2010. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2019.
Quotes
- species:
- themes:
Collations
Literature notes
Poetry appeals to the senses.
Imagery is language that evokes a physical sensation produced by one or more of the five senses.
Your memory determines how you picture the image triggered by a word.
A word may also have connotations—emotional associations that define your response.
By using images, a poet can accomplish two things:
- Create pictures in a reader’s mind.
- Create numerous imaginative associations.
Imaginative associations triggered by images establish the atmosphere or mood of a poem.
An image in a poem could trigger different meanings and emotions depending on the reader who reads it.
When a reader reads an image you wrote, they could either:
- remember it from memory
- create it in their imagination
Imagery is economic. A few carefully chosen words could evoke a range of emotions and reactions.
Images could assist poets to express abstract ideas (like beauty or love) or make them more understandable to others.
- For example, how can you present beauty through images?
Images can appeal to all senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.
A poem may also convey a poet’s interpretations of these images.
Imagery could be static (like a painting).
Imagery could be kinetic, conveying a sense of motion or change (like a movie).
Synesthesia occurs when one sense is described in terms of another sense (e.g., describe sound using color).
- I am feeling blue.
- You look hot!
- This song is smooth.
Questions to analyze a poem’s images.