Imagery

Imagery can be defined as the representation through language of sense experience. Poetry appeals indirectly to our senses through imagery, which is more incidental to a poem than metaphors, symbols, and themes, yet they are often confused. An image should evoke something more than just the mere mention of the object or situation. A common mistake is to interpret every image as though it were a symbol or metaphor, which Frost referred to as “pressing the poem too hard.” Starting with the examples below, see how many images you can identify in each poem.

There are seven different kinds of imagery:

Visual Imagery – something seen in the mind’s eye.

Examples:

After Apple-Picking – “magnified apples appear and disappear…every fleck of russet showing clear.”
Once by the Pacific – “the clouds were low and hairy…like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.”
Birches – “the iced branches shed ‘crystal shells.'”
October – “Enchant the land with amethyst.”
Good Hours – “the cottages up to their shining eyes in snow.”

Auditory Imagery – represents a sound.

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.”

Olfactory Imagery – a smell.

Examples:

After Apple-Picking – “Essence of winter sleep is on the night, the scent of apples.” (Note: just the mention of “the scent of apples” does not make it an image, but when connected to “essence of winter sleep,” the scent gains vividness.)
To Earthward – “musk from hidden grapevine springs.”
Out, Out – the sticks of wood “sweet scented stuff.”
Unharvested – “A scent of ripeness from over a wall…smelling the sweetness in no theft.”
To a Young Wretch – “the boy takes the tree and heads home, ‘smelling green.'”

Gustatory Imagery – a 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.'”

Tactile Imagery – touch, such as hardness, softness, wetness, heat, cold.

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 harplike morning-glory strings and plays some tenderness.”
The Witch of Coos – “the bed linens might just as well be ice and the clothes snow.”
On Going Unnoticed – “You grasp the bark by a rugged pleat, / And look up small from the forest’s feet.”

Organic Imagery – internal sensation, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear.

Examples:

After Apple-Picking – “My instep arch not only keeps the ache, It keeps the pressure of a ladder round.”
Storm Fear – “My heart owns a doubt, It costs no inward struggle not to go.”
Birches – “It’s when I’m weary of considerations / And life is too much like a pathless wood, etc.”
The White-Tailed Hornet – “To stab me in the sneeze-nerve of a nostril.”
Spring Pools – “the trees drinking up the pools and along with it, the flowers.”

Kinesthetic Imagery – movement or tension.

Examples:

After Apple-Picking – “I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.”
Bereft – “Leaves got up in a coil and hissed, / Blindly struck at my knee and missed.”
Ghost House – “the black bats tumble and dart.”
A Late Walk – “the whir of sober birds, is sadder than any words.”
Once by the Pacific – “Shattered water …Great waves looked over others coming in.”