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Imagery In The Five Senses

Satisfactory Essays

. Imagery:
Poetry indirectly appeals to our senses through imagery. Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses.The poet will use words to create images in our heads that help us to interpret the poem in the way he sees it. Imagery is more incidental to a poem than metaphors, symbols and theme and they are often confused. Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses.Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. The word imagery is associated with mental pictures. However, this idea is but partially correct. Imagery, to be realistic, turns out to …show more content…

Many of these deal with the five senses, which all work together to help us create mental images of whatever we are reading.5
1. Visual:
Visual imagery appeals to the sense of sight, and plays the largest role in imagery in literature. It describes what a scene or character looks like.
Examples: After Apple-Picking - the rumbling... of load on load of apples coming in; Mowing- The scythe whispering to the ground; The Runaway- The miniature thunder…. the clatter of stone; An Old Man's Winter Night- The roar of trees, the crack of branches, beating on a box; Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening - the sweep of easy wind and downy flake.
2. Auditory:
Auditory imagery describes specific sounds that are happening within the story. This imagery represents sounds like in words such as “buzzing, tinkling, chiming” and others related to the sound. This imagery is developed by the poet to make an auditory imaginative in poem. The auditory imagery that evokes in poem is not like auditory perception. It means, when the reader reads it, he only fell the sense of hearing but not really hearing in purpose.
3. …show more content…

Gustatory:
Gustatory imagery pertains to the sense of taste.
Examples: After Apple- Picking - although not specifically mentioned, the taste of the apples is implied; To Earthward - I craved strong sweets ...now no joy but lacks salt;Blueberries - the blueberries as big as your thumb...with the flavor of soot; A Record Stride - the walking boots that taste of Atlantic and Pacific salt;The Exposed Nest- A haying machine passes over a bird nest without "tasting flesh".
5. Tactile:
Tactile imagery appeals to the sense of touch for example hardness, softness, wetness, heat, cold as the feeling of a nice fuzzy blanket on a cold night, the smooth underside of a snake, the rough texture of tree bark. Anything you can touch can be described through imagery. The description of a bare hand on a mound of snow could be described as, “Sarah placed her bare hand on the cold snow. It was wet at first, then the frigid cold set in like a thousand needles, all pricking her palm at once”.
Examples: After Apple-Picking - the fruit to "Cherish in hand" ;Moon Compasses -"So love will take between the hands a face...”;The Death of the Hired Man - Mary touches the harp like morning-glory strings and plays some tenderness; The Witch of Coos - the bed linens might just as well be ice and the clothes

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