Imagery & Figurative Language
An”image” is “a word or sequence of words
that refers to any sensory experience”
(Kennedy and Gioia 741).
Imagery
What are your five senses? Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste,
and Smell
 An image conveys a sense perception , i.e., a visual
picture, a sound, a feeling of touch, a taste, or an odor
 Imagery = a noun used to refer to a set of related
images in poem or the totality of images in a poem:
Shelley uses nature imagery in his poem “To
Autumn.”
Figures of Speech
Figurative language uses figures of speech to
convey unique images and create some sort
of special effect or impression.
A “figure of speech” is an intentional
deviation from the ordinary usage of
language.
Poetry works by comparison
 Poets often create images or enhance
meaning by comparing one thing to another
for special effect.
 A most important figure of speech is the
Metaphor
Metaphor
 The term metaphor has two meanings, a
broad, more general meaning and a concise,
specific meaning.
– All figures of speech which use association,
comparison, or resemblance can generally be
called types of metaphor, or metaphorical.
– One specific figure of speech which compares
two things by saying that one IS the other is
called a metaphor.
Simile
 A simile is a type of metaphor, a figure in which
an explicit comparison is made using the
comparative words like, as, resembles, than.
Similes are easy to spot.
(X is like Y: X is compared to Y in order to illustrate X
more fancifully, poetically, or effectively. But Y is not a
literal representation of X, not actual.)
 The team’s center looked like a skyscraper.
 My love is like a red, red rose.
 We were as quiet as frightened mice.
More similes
 Kennedy and Gioia offer a good list of ways
to make a simile:
My love is like a red, red rose.
My love resembles a rose.
My love is redder than a rose.
She came out smelling like a rose! (767)
Metaphor
 A metaphor also compares, but a metaphor is a bit
more sophisticated than a simile.
 For one thing, in a metaphor, the words
like or as are missing. So readers have to
recognize the comparison on their own without
those easy words which help us to spot a simile so
quickly.
Metaphor (continued)
In a metaphor, a poet writes that X is Y. Readers
understand that we are not to take the comparison
literally, but that the metaphor helps us to see X in
a new way.
My brother is a prince.
Razorback Stadium was a slaughterhouse.
More metaphors
Richard was a lion in the fight.
Her eyes are dark emeralds. Her teeth are pearls.
But Avoid Mixed Metaphors (combining two or more
incompatible images in a single figure of speech):
Management extended an olive branch in an attempt
to break some of the ice between the company and
the workers.
Implied Metaphor
Kennedy and Gioia offer a kind of metaphor (767)
lacking the actual “to be” verb (is, am, are, was,
were and other such forms of the verb “to be”)
called
an Implied Metaphor
What is implied here about the speaker’s love?
• Oh, my love has petals and sharp thorns.
• Oh, I placed my love into a long-stemmed vase
And I bandaged my bleeding thumb.
And here, what is implied about the city and the subway?
• The subway coursed through the arteries of the city.
Extended Metaphor
 This kind of metaphor may run through an entire work. In
George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, the farm is
compared to a nation, with different possible forms of
goverance. This comparison extends throughout the novel.
 Sometimes a poet will use an extended metaphor throughout
a poem rather than simply as one single figure of speech in
a poem.
Dead Metaphor
 A dead metaphor has been so used and overused that it has
lost its power to surprise, delight, or effectively compare.
A cliché is a dead metaphor, a phrase so often repeated that
it no longer has force:
–
–
–
–
He hit the nail on the head.
She was cool as a cucumber.
Jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
This powerpoint show is crystal clear.
– Avoid the use of clichés in your own writing!
Personification
Another kind of comparison is called
personification. Here, animals, elements of nature,
and abstract ideas are given human qualities.
John Milton calls time “the subtle thief of youth” (599).
Homer refers to “the rosy fingers of dawn” (599).
Other examples of personification
– The stars smiled down on us.
– An angry wind slashed its way across the island.
 The three main uses of figurative language needed
to read poetry are the previous:
– Simile
– Metaphor
– Personification
– But there are many other poetic devices used.
The more you recognize, the richer your
reading experience can be.
– Here follow more figures of speech:
Oxymoron
 Oxymoron - two contradictory terms are placed side by side,
usually for an effect of intensity:
• darkness visible (John Milton)
• burning ice
People often enjoy joking sarcastically by declaring certain
pairs of words to be oxymorons:
military intelligence
Hyperbole
 Hyperbole (hy per bo lee) is intentional exaggeration or
overstating, often for dramatic or humorous effect:
Your predicament saddens me so much that I feel a
veritable flood of tears coming on:
Understatement
 The intentional understatement is used for effect also:
“Thank you for this Pulitzer Prize: I am pleased.”
 Another kind of understatement called Litotes occurs when
a negative is used to state a positive:
“When I won the Pulitzer Prize, I was not unhappy.”
Apostrophe
 A person or thing which is absent is
addressed:
“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt
Whitman” (Ginsberg 599).
“Oh sun, I miss you, now that it’s
December.”
Metonymy
 In this figure (m’ tawn ni’mee) one thing is
replaced by another thing associated with it:
 The Crown is amused (“The Crown” is the
Queen).
 The White House is furious (“The White
House” is the President).
Synecdoche
 Here, (sin nec duh kee) a part represents
the whole:
• All hands on deck!
• Lend me your ears.
• Let’s buy one hundred head of cattle!
Want more?
 Figures of speech are numerous. The effective
practice of communication is called rhetoric, and
many, many figures of speech can be identified in
language use.
 Some other figures are anachronism, euphemism,
pun, and onomatopoeia (o no mat o pee ya). In this
last figure, words are used to convey sound, like
bzzzz or cock-a-doodle-doo.
Oh no, you say? Here it comes!
Works Cited
Birkerts, Sven. Literature: The Evolving Canon. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 1993.
Ginsberg, Allen. “A Supermarket in California.” Literature:
The Evolving Canon. Sven P. Birkerts, ed. Boston:
Allyn and Bacon, 1993. 599.
Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An
Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th ed.
New York: Longman, 1999.