Imagery & Figurative Language

An”image” is “a word or sequence of words

that refers to any sensory experience”

(Kennedy and Gioia 741).

Imagery

What are your five senses? Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste,

and Smell

An image conveys a sense perception , i.e., a visual

picture, a sound, a feeling of touch, a taste, or an odor

Imagery = a noun used to refer to a set of related

images in poem or the totality of images in a poem:

Shelley uses nature imagery in his poem “To Autumn.”

Figures of Speech

Figurative language uses figures of speech to

convey unique images and create some sort

of special effect or impression.

A “figure of speech” is an intentional

deviation from the ordinary usage of

language.

Poetry works by comparison

Poets often create images or enhance

meaning by comparing one thing to another

for special effect.

A most important figure of speech is the

Metaphor

Metaphor The term metaphor has two meanings, a

broad, more general meaning and a concise,

specific meaning.

– All figures of speech which use association,

comparison, or resemblance can generally be

called types of metaphor, or metaphorical.

– One specific figure of speech which compares

two things by saying that one IS the other is

called a metaphor.

Simile

A simile is a type of metaphor, a figure in which

an explicit comparison is made using the

comparative words like, as, resembles, than.

Similes are easy to spot.

(X is like Y: X is compared to Y in order to illustrate X

more fancifully, poetically, or effectively. But Y is not a

literal representation of X, not actual.)

The team’s center looked like a skyscraper.

My love is like a red, red rose.

We were as quiet as frightened mice.

More similes

Kennedy and Gioia offer a good list of ways

to make a simile:

My love is like a red, red rose.

My love resembles a rose.

My love is redder than a rose.

She came out smelling like a rose! (767)

Metaphor

A metaphor also compares, but a metaphor is a bit

more sophisticated than a simile.

For one thing, in a metaphor, the words

like or as are missing. So readers have to

recognize the comparison on their own without

those easy words which help us to spot a simile so

quickly.

Metaphor (continued)

In a metaphor, a poet writes that X is Y. Readers

understand that we are not to take the comparison

literally, but that the metaphor helps us to see X in

a new way.

My brother is a prince.

Razorback Stadium was a slaughterhouse.

More metaphors

Richard was a lion in the fight.

Her eyes are dark emeralds. Her teeth are pearls.

But Avoid Mixed Metaphors (combining two or more

incompatible images in a single figure of speech):

Management extended an olive branch in an attempt

to break some of the ice between the company and

the workers.

Implied Metaphor Kennedy and Gioia offer a kind of metaphor (767)

lacking the actual “to be” verb (is, am, are, was,

were and other such forms of the verb “to be”)

called

an Implied Metaphor

What is implied here about the speaker’s love?

• Oh, my love has petals and sharp thorns.

• Oh, I placed my love into a long-stemmed vase

And I bandaged my bleeding thumb.

And here, what is implied about the city and the subway?

• The subway coursed through the arteries of the city.

Extended Metaphor This kind of metaphor may run through an entire work. In

George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, the farm is

compared to a nation, with different possible forms of

goverance. This comparison extends throughout the novel.

Sometimes a poet will use an extended metaphor throughout

a poem rather than simply as one single figure of speech in

a poem.

Dead Metaphor A dead metaphor has been so used and overused that it has

lost its power to surprise, delight, or effectively compare.

A cliché is a dead metaphor, a phrase so often repeated that

it no longer has force:

– He hit the nail on the head.

– She was cool as a cucumber.

– Jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.

– This powerpoint show is crystal clear.

– Avoid the use of clichés in your own writing!

Personification Another kind of comparison is called

personification. Here, animals, elements of nature,

and abstract ideas are given human qualities.

John Milton calls time “the subtle thief of youth” (599).

Homer refers to “the rosy fingers of dawn” (599).

Other examples of personification

– The stars smiled down on us.

– An angry wind slashed its way across the island.

The three main uses of figurative language needed

to read poetry are the previous: – Simile

– Metaphor

– Personification

– But there are many other poetic devices used.

The more you recognize, the richer your

reading experience can be.

– Here follow more figures of speech:

Oxymoron Oxymoron - two contradictory terms are placed side by side,

usually for an effect of intensity:

• darkness visible (John Milton)

• burning ice

People often enjoy joking sarcastically by declaring certain

pairs of words to be oxymorons:

military intelligence

Hyperbole

Hyperbole (hy per bo lee) is intentional exaggeration or

overstating, often for dramatic or humorous effect:

Your predicament saddens me so much that I feel a

veritable flood of tears coming on:

Understatement The intentional understatement is used for effect also:

“Thank you for this Pulitzer Prize: I am pleased.”

Another kind of understatement called Litotes occurs when

a negative is used to state a positive:

“When I won the Pulitzer Prize, I was not unhappy.”

Apostrophe

A person or thing which is absent is

addressed:

“What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt

Whitman” (Ginsberg 599).

“Oh sun, I miss you, now that it’s December.”

Metonymy

In this figure (m’ tawn ni’mee) one thing is

replaced by another thing associated with it:

The Crown is amused (“The Crown” is the

Queen).

The White House is furious (“The White

House” is the President).

Synecdoche

Here, (sin nec duh kee) a part represents

the whole:

• All hands on deck!

• Lend me your ears.

• Let’s buy one hundred head of cattle!

Want more? Figures of speech are numerous. The effective

practice of communication is called rhetoric, and

many, many figures of speech can be identified in

language use.

Some other figures are anachronism, euphemism,

pun, and onomatopoeia (o no mat o pee ya). In this

last figure, words are used to convey sound, like

Oh no, you say? Here it comes!

bzzzz or cock-a-doodle-doo.

Birkerts, Sven. Literature: The Evolving Canon. Boston:

Allyn and Bacon, 1993.

Ginsberg, Allen. “A Supermarket in California.” Literature:

The Evolving Canon. Sven P. Birkerts, ed. Boston:

Allyn and Bacon, 1993. 599.

Kennedy, X.J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An

Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th ed.

New York: Longman, 1999.

Works Cited