Literary Device
Controlling Image
Elizabeth Figueroa
Lourdes Oseguera
Period: 2
Definition
 Controlling Image- a literary device employing repetition so
as to stress the theme of a work or a particular symbol.
 Controlling Image is an image a poet uses to carry forward
the sense of the poem. It shapes the nature and form of the
work as well.
Pronunciation Guide
 [kuhn-trohl-eng] [im-ij]
 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/control
 http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/image
Literary Example #1
The Flea
John Donne
 Mark but this flea, and mark in this,
How little that which thou deny'st me is;
It sucked me first, and now sucks thee,
And in this flea our two bloods mingled be;
Thou know'st that this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead;
Yet this enjoys before it woo,
And pampered swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more than we would do.
Oh stay, three lives in one flea spare,
Where we almost, yea, more than married are.
This flea is you and I
Analysis #1
 Comparison between the characters love and the flea is seen
throughout the entire poem.
 The literary device helps support the poem because without
it the author would not be able to explain his love and much
as he does with it.
 Helps explain how the two are ‘linked’ by blood because the
flea has bitten them both
Literary Example #2
Death- Emily Dickinson
 Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality. We slowly drove,
he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
 We passed the school, where
children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing
grain,
We passed the setting sun.
 Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.
 We paused before a house that
seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
 Since then 'tis centuries, and yet
each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
Analysis #2
 The entire poem is based around the one comparison of
death to a coach driver.
 Explains how even if one tries to escape death, its inevitable.
 This helps shape the poem because death is spiritual and it
shows how it is always following someone around.
Literary example #3
Alzheimers
© 1999 Stephen A. Miser
 In the autumn of her life,
As her final thoughts turned loose their hold,
And fell slowly
To the already-littered ground,
She stood bare,
Staring starkly at the somber sky.
The wind still played among the branches,
Making soft, indistinguishable spirit sounds,
But she cast no shade,
Made no rustle.
Then one, rare, lucid day,
When the sun again shone brightly,
If only for a moment,
She tried to gather the brittle, dry things to herself,
To rake them into a pile.
But a final wind gusted
And blew them away.
Analysis #3
 Compares her life with Alzheimer's to a tree losing its leafs.
 This literary device supports the purpose of the poem
because it helps explain how the life on this person is falling
apart (leaves falling).
 Shows how Alzheimer’s is taking over this person life and
leaving her “bare” and breaking her down physically and
emotionally.