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 ImageryVerbal 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, mirror-flat bright eye;And felt him beat in my hand, with his mucous, leapingLife-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 CitedDean, Nancy. Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, and Tone. Gainesville, Florida: Maupin House, 2000.