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Imagery

In literature, imagery is a literary device that helps to give a reader a sense of actually experiencing the feelings and thoughts that the author is referencing. Let’s look at an example: 


Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 1: 


My wind cooling my broth

Would blow me to an ague when I thought

What harm a wind too great might do at sea.

I should not see the sandy hourglass run

But I should think of shallows and of flats,

And see my wealthy Andrew docked in sand,

Vailing her high top lower than her ribs

To kiss her burial. Should I go to church

And see the holy edifice of stone

And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,

Which, touching but my gentle vessel’s side,

Would scatter all her spices on the stream,

Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks


In this scene, the character Antonio feels sad, and his friend Salarino guesses why. He thinks that’s it because Antonio is a Merchant with ships at sea loaded with valuable cargo and he worries about this cargo. 


He uses vivid scenes and imagery to get into the mind of a merchant involved in a business as precarious as shipping in that era. The way he connects aspects of the ship to aspects of everyday life is effective.


It shows how a person is incapable of being happy doing everyday things when his mind is steeped in worries. “Wind cooling my broth” is compared to storm winds at sea. Salarino even mentions being blown into ague — that is seizures — thinking of the harm that stormy winds might cause. In this article, I will elaborate more on examples of imagery, including imagery from a famous song by Bob Dylan.

Boby Dylan in shades in 1966.
Boby Dylan in shades in 1966.

What is Imagery?


Imagery is a literary device that uses vivid language designed to appeal to the five human senses. Imagery does not always have to be dense or complicated. Nonetheless, dense and complicated imagery has its cons. Imagery also is hardly used on its own. It is often used in combination with other literary devices, such as simile and metaphor.


Let’s take a look at an example from the poet Derek Walcott: 



There were still shards of an ancient pastoral

in those shires of the island where the cattle drank

their pools of shadow from an older sky,

surviving from when the landscape copied such subjects as

“Herefords at Sunset in the Valley of the Wye.”

The mountain water that fell white from the mill wheel

sprinkling like petals from the star-apple trees,

and all of the windmills and sugar mills moved by mules

on the treadmill of Monday to Monday


Here the poet is describing the Jamaican landscape. The country was a colony of Great Britain, and we are reading the poem from the perspective of a Jamaican elite who is now in charge after independence from Great Britain. 


The poet is describing the landscape of Jamaica and linking it to its colonial past using vivid imagery. Let’s take a look at the following line: 


There were still shards of an ancient pastoral

in those shires of the island . . .


This description suggests that the history of the island is incomplete and broken. It’s described as a “shard” for two reasons. Jamaica, a few years before the poem was written, wasn’t its own country it was part of Great Britain. 


In addition, the landscape in parts of Jamaica closely resembles the shires of Great Britain. The word “shards” suggests they were smaller and inferior versions of Great Britain’s landscape. 


Another interesting line is “when the landscape copied such subjects as / “Herefords at Sunset in the Valley of the Wye.” This describes colonial subjects in Jamaica doing landscape paintings that imitated those done of the shires in Great Britain. 


This use of imagery is much more interesting than simply saying that Jamaica is a former colonial country with a broken past and no clear vision of how to move forward after independence. 


Why do writers use imagery? 


Writers use imagery for several reasons. The main ones are as follows:


  1. It transports the reader into the scene or idea being described

  2. Images allow the writer to say more by writing less

  3. It enriches the writing with deeper meaning and significance


For example, in the case of Wlacott’s “Star-Apple Kingdom,” we are transported directly into the Jamaican landscape he describes. In the case of Shakespeare, we get an accurate description of how anxiety prevents a man from enjoying everyday activities. 


Imagery also allows the writer to say more by saying less by making images either speak for themselves or suggest more. For example, in teh case of Star-Apple Kingdom, let's look at the following lines: 


and all of the windmills and sugar mills moved by mules

on the treadmill of Monday to Monday


This refers to the colonial economy and the history of slavery in Jamaica. The reference to windmills and sugar mills moved by “mules” refers to the toil and drudgery of the slavery economy that the Jamaican economy relied on in the past. The poet uses imagery to link the landscape and teh country to its complicated and difficult historical past. 


Examples of imagery 


Our first example of imagery being used effectively is from a song by Bob Dylan. 


1. Dylan, “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1962): 


Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?

Oh, what did you see, my darling young one?

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it

I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it

I saw a black branch with blood that kept drippin’

I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’

I saw a white ladder all covered with water

I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children

And it’s a hard, and it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard

And it’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall


This song was written during the Civil Rights movement. It was a period that threatened violent political upheaval in teh United States. Dylan attempted to transform this mood of political upheaval into a series of concise apocalyptical images piled one on top of the other. Even without the song having a central narrative, its ominous effect is obvious. 


2. Noyes, “The Highwayman” (1901): 


The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees.   

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas.   

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,   

And the highwayman came riding—

         Riding—riding— [5]

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.


He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin,   

A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin.

They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh.   

And he rode with a jewelled twinkle, [10]

         His pistol butts a-twinkle,

His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.


Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred.   

He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there   

But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter,

         Bess, the landlord’s daughter,

Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.



This poem by Noyes uses imagery to appeal to all the senses. “The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees” (Line 1) referes to the noise of the wind in the trees. Line 13 is the most remarkable: 

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard.

The poet recreates the sound of a horseman riding over cobblestones using literary devices such as imagery, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. These vivid descriptions, including the way in which the highwayman is dressed, transports us into the story. We get a definite idea of the mood and character of the tale we are being told. 


3. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925):


A breeze blew through the room, blew curtains in at one end and out the other like pale flags, twisting them up toward the frosted wedding-cake of the ceiling, and then rippled over the wine-colored rug

We are being introduced to Daisy, the lady with whom Gatsby is infatuated. Imagery is used to portray her home as fantasy and dreamlike. 


The author in the next paragraph introduces us to Daisy and her friend: 


The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon. They were both in white, and their dresses were rippling and fluttering as if they had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house. I must have stood for a few moments listening to the whip and snap of the curtains and the groan of a picture on the wall. Then there was a boom as Tom Buchanan shut the rear windows and the caught wind died out about the room, and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.

This is written in the first few pages of the book. It is not poetic description for the sake of flowery language. It is a summary of teh entire thesis of the novel. The first sentence compares the couch in which Daisy is sitting to a balloon. This is significant. It’s an implicit criticism of Gatsby’s fantasy as being full of hot air. 


Someone will eventually pinch that balloon and deflate his dream. We get a good idea of how that would happen at the end of the passage when Daisy’s husband shuts the window “and the curtains and the rugs and the two young women ballooned slowly to the floor.”

 

Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2024, November 16). Imageryhttps://www.eminentediting.com/post/imagery


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