1. Getting Started
Let’s explore some strategies for employing imagery in contemporary poetry.
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
- write a poem using imagery
- differentiate between abstraction and five types of imagery
2. Video: Introducing Imagery
Access a transcript of this video.
3. Approaches to Imagery
Imagery in poems revolves around the senses: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. All of these types of sense-words are called “imagery” (even if they are not always visual).
On the other hand, words that cannot be felt in an embodied, sensory way–like “success” or “eternity”–are called abstractions. Imagery will almost always engage a reader more than abstraction.
Click through the image reel below to learn about five types of imagery.
Access a transcript of this image reel.
4. Knowledge Check
Great work! You’re really getting the hang of this “imagery” thing.
Hmm. Not quite. Consider taking another look at the five types of imagery, then try again.
5. Imagery and Abstraction
While imagery offers the reader an important point of entry into the poem’s world, that doesn’t mean abstraction is always a bad thing. Often, poems use imagery in order to create a sensory experience that can be probed for meaning, enticing the reader to peer deeper into a more complex thought about something abstract.
Click on the image on the left to read “Chainsaw” by Marie Howe. Use the following questions to guide your reading:
- How many visual and auditory images can you find in this poem?
- What is the consistent theme of the imagery in this poem? What do all of these images have in common?
- Why does the beginning of this poem rely more on imagery, while the ending shifts towards abstraction?
9. Prompt: Imagery
Write a poem that does one of the following:
- Option 1: employs cohesive imagery to celebrate the beauty of something conventionally considered ugly. (Examples: a bag of trash, a dishrag, old sneakers, stained clothing, etc.)
- Option 2: employs imagery in one sense to describe another. (Examples: visual imagery to describe a sound, auditory imagery to describe a sensation, etc.)
Share the resulting poem with some fellow writers whose opinions you trust, either informally or in a workshop setting. Ask them (and yourself) the following:
- Does the imagery in this poem feel specific and sensory enough?
- Is there abstraction in this poem, and if so, does it feel balanced by the poem’s imagery?
- How could the imagery in this poem be sharpened to greater impact?
- Does the imagery feel cohesive? Do these images belong together?
- How does the use of imagery feel considering the poem’s subject?
10. Quiz: Imagery and Abstraction
Want to test your knowledge? Try the following quiz. For each quotation below, identify the correct description.
#1. “a yellow station wagon”
#2. “a warm bath”
#3. “a piercing scream”
#4. “like sugar on the tongue”
#5. “the stench of cigarettes”
#6. “eternal love”
Results
Before You Go
Check out the following resources on imagery:
- Davidson, Chad and Gregory Fraser. (2009). “The Concrete Versus the Abstract.” Writing Poetry: Creative and Critical Approaches. Palgrave Macmillan.
- “Imagery.” (n.d.). https://poets.org/glossary/imagery
- Richardson, Rachel. (2015). “Learning Image and Description. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70212/learning-image-and-description
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