Imagery

Imagery  Imagery is the use of language to create pictures or impressions in readers’ minds – sights, sounds, smells and so on.  Read the opening lines of  Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach:

The sea is calm tonight.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits: - on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone, the cliffs of England stand

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

In very few words the poet conjures up a peaceful night time scene of Dover Beach lit by moonlight, for example, the calm sea, the tranquil bay, the glimmering and vast cliffs.

Imagery helps readers understand what the poet wants to say and how they feel.  Sometime imagery is in the form of well chosen words and phrases, as in the example above, but there are also two other well known techniques which we will look at:   the use of similes and metaphors.