Imagery

Poets often use imagery in their poems. Imagery is where language is used in such a way as to help us form a kind of ‘mental picture’ of the thing that is being described or the idea that is being explored.

Images can work in a number of ways. For example, a poet can literally describe something, as Mary Ann Evans does at the beginning of her poem In a London Drawing-room.

‘The sky is cloudy, yellowed by the smoke.

For view there are the houses opposite

Cutting the sky with one long line of wall ’

In this example, Evans describes what she can see literally and so this is called a ‘literal image’. However, sometimes the thing that is being described is compared to something else in order to make the description more vivid. This kind of imagery is called ‘figurative’. Here are some examples of this kind of imagery.

Simile

You can spot similes easily because they usually make the comparison quite clear, often by using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. For example, in the poem you have just looked at, Evans continues her description using a simile:

‘Cutting the sky with one long line of wall

Like a solid fog.’

Here she uses the simile of the fog to emphasise how the wall cuts out the light of the sky like a ‘solid fog’ would do.

Metaphor

Metaphors are very similar to similes in that they also create a comparison, but instead of saying something is ‘like’ or ‘as’ something, it actually says it is that thing. For example, in his sonnet Upon Westminster Bridge, William Wordsworth describes London, which can be seen as the ‘heart’ of the country, early in a morning saying, ‘And all that mighty heart is lying still ’. Obviously, the city isn’t literally a ‘heart’ but Wordsworth is using a metaphor to describe it.

Look at the verse from Keith Douglas’s Vergissmeinnicht in which he describes the body of a German soldier on the battlefield. He speaks of how the soldier’s girlfriend –

‘….would weep to see today

how on his skin the swart flies move;

the dust upon the paper eye

and the burst stomach like a cave’

Identify and explain:

• the metaphor Douglas uses
• the simile he uses.

The metaphor is ‘the dust upon the paper eye’. The eye of the dead soldier isn’t actually made of paper but in death it has come to look like paper rather than alive and seeing.

The simile used is ‘…the burst stomach like a cave’. Here the poet compares the burst open stomach of the dead soldier to the dark opening of a cave.

Personification

Another form of imagery is created through the technique of attributing human qualities or feelings to something that is not human. For example, in this poem, James Stephens personifies the wind.

The Wind

The wind stood up, and gave a shout;

He whistled on his fingers, and

Kicked the withered leaves about,

And thumped the branches with his hand,

And said he’d kill, and kill, and kill;

And so he will! And so he will!

James Stephens (1882–1950)

What effect does personification have on the poem?

It has the effect of bringing to the poem the sense that the wind is a living thing, therefore giving it a feeling of life.

Aural imagery

Apart from images created through words, poets often make use of images that are created through sound.

Alliteration involves the repetition of the same consonant sound, usually at the beginning of each word. For example, in Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem The Windhover he describes a kestrel hovering:

‘I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s

dauphin, dapple-down-drawn Falcon,’

Here there is alliteration of the ‘m’ and ‘d’ sounds.

Sometimes the alliteration can come at the end of words too, as in the line from another of Hopkins’ poems Spring –

‘When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and ‘lush’,’

Here the ‘w’, ‘l’ and ‘sh’ sounds are alliterated.

Students generally find alliteration easy to spot in a poem but the main thing is to be able to describe its effects, and this can be more difficult. There are certain things to look out for:

• The way that alliteration can help to affect and create the tone within a poem.
• The way that its regularity or irregularity can affect rhythm.

Assonance

Assonance is another kind of aural device involving repetitions. This time the repetition is of a vowel sound and again it is used to create a particular effect in a poem. For example, Sylvia Plath uses it in the opening line of her poem Frog Autumn –

‘Summer grows old, cold-blooded mother’

Here the long, drawn out ‘o’ sounds create a slow, weary tone and give the impression of a loss of life and vitality as summer turns to autumn and winter approaches.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is another kind of aural device in which the actual sounds of words reflect their meanings. Simple examples would be words like ‘bang’ or ‘crash’. However, poets often use this device in more complex ways. Here, Wilfred Owen uses onomatopoeia to create a sense of the sound of gunfire in Anthem for Doomed Youth –

‘Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons’

You might have noticed some alliteration here too.

The important thing is not to simply ‘spot’ features but to be able to explain and comment on the effects they create in a poem and what they contribute towards its overall effectiveness.