Imagery
One of the five elements of voice:
diction, detail, imagery, syntax and
tone.
Imagery is a central component of
almost all imaginative literature
and is often said to be the chief
element in poetry. Non-fiction
writers also make extensive use of
imagery.
Two types of imagery
• Literal
• Figurative
Literal Imagery
Verbal representation of sensory
experience. Purely descriptive,
representing an object or event
with words that draw on or appeal
to the kind of experiences gained
through the five senses.
Literal: Verbal representation of
sensory experience.
Sight (visual imagery)
Sound (auditory imagery)
Touch (tactile imagery)
Taste (gustatory imagery)
Smell (olfactory imagery)
Figurative Imagery
The use of figures of speech, often
to express abstract ideas in a vivid
and innovative way (e.g. simile,
personification, metaphor, etc.).
Imagery depends on both diction
and detail: an image’s success in
producing a sensory experience
results from the specificity of the
author’s diction and choice of
detail.
What imagery does:
- Contributes to voice by evoking
vivid experience, conveying specific
emotion and suggesting a particular
idea.
Whether literal or figurative,
imagery is generally intended to
make whatever the author is
describing concrete in the
reader’s mind, to give it some
tangible and real existence rather
than a purely intellectual one.
Imagery also provides the reader
with a sense of vividness and
immediacy.
Visual imagery is most common, but
good writers experiment with other
types. Some even intermingle the
senses using synesthesia (describing
one sensory impression with words
that normally describe another (e.g.
white heat, loud sweater).
Imagery may be used to impart
figurative or symbolic meaning.
For example, the parched earth
can be a metaphor for a
character’s despair, or a bird’s
flight a metaphor for hope.
Traditional imagery typically has a
history. A river, for example, is
usually associated with life’s
journey.
Traditional images are rarely
disassociated with their historic
meaning. You (students) should
examine the traditional meanings of
images, the departure from tradition,
and the effect of both on meaning.
Also learn to recognize and analyze
non-traditional and non-figurative
imagery used to influence and
sharpen reader perception.
Imagery also has a specific and
special relation to symbolism. All
symbols depend on images,
images that are often repeated to
give the symbol cogency and
depth.
In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved
(1987), the repeated description of
Sethe’s scarred back as wrought
iron or as a tree serves to make her
a symbol of the slave’s
extraordinary physical and spiritual
suffering and strength.
Some critics have suggested that
the key to unlocking the meaning
of a work lies in identifying its
image patterns and understanding
how they work together to suggest
or symbolize larger meanings of
themes.
These critics believe that the
pattern of imagery in a work more
truly revels the work’s meaning
that anything explicitly stated by a
speaker, narrator, or author.
In his poem “Fish” (1922) D.H.
Lawrence uses striking imagery to
create the visual picture (and
tactile sensation) of a fish just
caught on a line. The speaker says
that he has:
Unhooked his gorping, water-horny
mouth,
And seen his horror-titled eye,
His red-gold, water precious, mirrorflat bright eye;
And felt him beat in my hand, with his
mucous, leaping
Life-throb
Figurative Imagery- The use of
figures of speech, often to express
abstract ideas in a vivid and
innovative way (e.g. simile,
personification, metaphor, etc.).
Figurative imagery may call to
mind real things that can be
perceived by the senses, but it
does so as a way of describing
something else – often some
abstract idea that cannot be
literally or directly described.
“’Hope is the thing with feathers”
– Emily Dickinson
“She felt the tug of memory, an
image that pulled at her
consciousness like a fish on a line.”
– Jane Austen.
Imagery is one thing that makes E.B.
White’s “Once More to the Lake” such
a vivid, memorable essay. Imagery is a
central component of this descriptive
essay, and it is largely imagery that
leaves us with a dominant impression
of the speaker’s experience at the lake
with his son.
Imagery contributes to White’s
voice by evoking vivid experience,
conveying specific emotion and
suggesting particular ideas.
Assignment: Pore over “Once
More to the Lake” with an eye
toward White’s use of imagery.
Find an example of each type of
literal imagery and one example of
figurative imagery that functions
symbolically.
Work Cited
Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons:
Classroom Activities to Teach
Diction, Detail, Imagery, and
Tone. Gainesville, Florida:
Maupin House, 2000.