Example 2Ī taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit. In just a few lines, Bishop mentions many colors including brown, rose, white, and green. You can imagine the fish with tattered, dark brown skin “like ancient wallpaper” covered in barnacles, lime deposits, and sea lice. It beautifies and complicates the image of a fish that has just been caught. This excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” is brimming with visual imagery. Here are a few examples of imagery in literature: Example 1 Imagery is found throughout literature in poems, plays, stories, novels, and other creative compositions. Imagery commonly helps build compelling poetry, convincing narratives, vivid plays, well-designed film sets, and descriptive songs. It allows readers to directly sympathize with characters and narrators as they imagine having the same sense experiences. Descriptive imagery launches the reader into the experience of a warm spring day, scorching hot summer, crisp fall, or harsh winter. Movement, such as burning muscles from exertion, swimming in cold water, or kicking a soccer ball.īecause we experience life through our senses, a strong composition should appeal to them through the use of imagery.Touch, such as hand-holding, one’s in the grass, or the feeling of starched fabric on one’s skin.Texture, such as rough, ragged, seamless, and smooth.Temperature, such as bitter cold, humidity, mildness, and stifling heat.Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Savoriness, such as a steak dinner or thick soup.Saltiness, such as pretzels, French fries, and pepperonis.Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as lemons and limes.Sweetness, such as candies, cookies, and desserts.Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Odors, such as rotting trash, body odors, or a stinky wet dog.Fragrances, such as perfumes, enticing food and drink, and blooming flowers.Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or eerie silence.Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a broom moving across the floor, and the sound of broken glass shattering on the hard floor.Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music, birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight.Īuditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure silence.Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images, paintings, or images directly experienced through the narrator’s eyes. Here are the five most common types of imagery used in creative writing: In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained muscles, grass’s tickle, and sweat cooling on skin. The grass tickled his skin and sweat cooled on his brow. Example 5Īfter the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and burning muscles. Thanks to an in-depth description of the candy’s various flavors, the reader can almost experience the deliciousness directly. The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together on her tongue. The scent of hibiscus helps describe a scene which is relaxing, warm, and welcoming. She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the air, its tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a beautiful place. Here, auditory imagery breaks silence with the beautiful sound of piano keys. Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began practicing her concerto. In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth with color (black as ever, bright), shape (varied constellations), and pattern (sprinkled). The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in beautiful and varied constellations which were sprinkled across the astronomical landscape. Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader’s experience through their senses. Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader.
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