Definition of Imagery

Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such
a way that it appeals to our physical senses.

Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual
representation of ideas in our minds. The word “imagery” is associated with mental
pictures. However, this idea is but partially correct. Imagery, to be realistic, turns out to be
more complex than just a picture. Read the following examples of imagery carefully:

 It was dark and dim in the forest.

The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images.
 The children were screaming and shouting in the fields.
“Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing, or auditory sense.
 He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee.
“Whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell, or olfactory sense.
 The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of touch, or tactile sense.
 The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
“Juicy” and “sweet” – when associated with oranges – have an effect on our sense
of taste, or gustatory sense.

Imagery needs the aid of figures of speech like simile, metaphor, personification,
and onomatopoeia, in order to appeal to the bodily senses. Let us analyze
how famous poets and writers use imagery in literature.

Short Examples of Imagery

1. The old man took the handful of dust, and sifted it through his fingers.
2. The starry night sky looked so beautiful that it begged him to linger, but he
reluctantly left for home.
3. The fragrance of spring flowers made her joyful.
4. The sound of a drum in the distance attracted him.
5. The people traveled long distances to watch the sunset in the north.
6. The stone fell with a splash in the lake.
7. The sound of bat hitting the ball was pleasing to his ear.
8. The chirping of birds heralded spring.
9. There lay refuse heaps on their path that were so smelly that it maddened them.
10. The silence in the room was unnerving.
11. The blind man touched the tree to learn if its skin was smooth or rough.
12. When he was on the way to work, he heard the muffled cry of a woman.
13. The beacons of moonlight bathed the room in ethereal light.
14. The wild gusts of cold wind pierced her body.
15. The burger, aromatic with spices, made his mouth water in anticipation of the
first bite.

Imagery Examples in Literature

Example #1: Romeo and Juliet (By William Shakespeare)

Imagery of light and darkness is repeated many times in Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. Consider an example from Act I, Scene V:

“O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear …”
Romeo praises Juliet by saying that she appears more radiant than the brightly lit torches
in the hall. He says that at night her face glows like a bright jewel shining against the dark
skin of an African. Through the contrasting images of light and dark, Romeo portrays
Juliet’s beauty.

Example #2: To Autumn (By John Keats)

John Keats’ To Autumn is an ode rich with auditory imagery examples. In the last five lines
of his ode he says:

“Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”

The animal sounds in the above excerpt keep appealing to our sense of hearing. We
hear the lambbleating and the crickets chirping. We hear the whistles of the redbreast
robin and the twitters of swallows in the skies. Keats call these sounds the song of
autumn.

Example #3: Once More to the Lake (By E. B. White)

In prose, imagery aids writers to accomplish a vivid description of events. Below is an

example of an effective use of imagery from E. B. White’s Once More to the Lake:

“When the others went swimming my son said he was going in, too. He pulled his dripping
trunks from the line where they had hung all through the shower and wrung them out.
Languidly, and with no thought of going in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and
bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy
garment. As he buckled the swollen belt, suddenly my groin felt the chill of death.”

The images depicting the dampness of clothes, in the above lines, convey a sense of the
chilly sensation that we get from wet clothes.

Example #4: Great Expectations (By Charles Dickens)

In Great Expectations, written by Charles Dickens, Pip (the hero of the novel) uses many
images to describe a damp morning in a marsh:

“It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had seen the damp lying on the outside of my
little window… Now, I saw the damp lying on the bare hedges and spare grass, … On
every rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-mist was so thick, that the wooden
finger on the post directing people to our village—a direction which they never accepted,
for they never came there—was invisible to me until I was quite close under it.”

The repeated use of the words “damp” and “wet” makes us feel how miserable it was for
him that damp and cold morning. The thick “marsh-mist” aids our imagination to visualize
the scene of morning in a marshland.

Example #5: Goodbye Mr. Chips (By James Hilton)

“Brookfield he had liked, almost from the beginning. He remembered that day of his
preliminary interview—sunny June, with the air full of flower scents and the plick-
plock of cricket on the pitch. Brookfield was playing Barnhurst, and one of the Barnhurst
boys, a chubby little fellow, made a brilliant century. Queer that a thing like that should
stay in the memory so clearly.”
This is an excellent example of the use of imagery in Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton.
First the word sunny refers to the visual imagery. The flower scent refers to the sense of
smell, and then theplick-plock refers to the sense of hearing.

Example #6: Daffodils (By William Wordsworth)

“I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.”

This is a very good example of imagery in Wordsworth’s Daffodils. The poet uses the
sense of sight to create a host of golden daffodils beside the lake. Their fluttering and
dancing also refers to the sight.

Example #7: Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (By Robert Frost)

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep … “

Robert Frost uses visual imagery in these lines of his famous poem as, “the woods are
lovely, dark and deep.”

Example #8: My November Guest (By Robert Frost)

“My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,

Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walked the sodden pasture lane.”

This poem by Robert Frost is yet another good example of imagery. In the second line, the
poet uses dark days, which is an instance of the use of visual imagery. In the fourth line,
the bare, withered treeuses the imagery of sight. In the fifth line, the sodden pasture is
also an instance of tactile imagery.

Function of Imagery
The function of imagery in literature is to generate a vibrant and graphic presentation of a
scene that appeals to as many of the reader’s senses as possible. It aids the reader’s
imagination to envision the characters and scenes in the literary piece clearly. Apart from
the above-mentioned function, images drawn by using figures of speech like metaphor,
simile, personification, and onomatopoeia, serve the function of beautifying a piece of
literature.
Diction Definition
Diction can be defined as style of speaking or writing, determined by the choice of words
by a speakeror a writer. Diction, or choice of words, often separates good writing from bad
writing. It depends on a number of factors. Firstly, the word has to be right and accurate.
Secondly, words should be appropriate to the context in which they are used. Lastly, the
choice of words should be such that the listener or reader understands easily.

Proper diction, or proper choice of words, is important to get the message across. On the
other hand, the wrong choice of words can easily divert listeners or readers, which results
in misinterpretation of the message intended to be conveyed.

Types of Diction
Individuals vary their diction depending on different contexts and settings. Therefore, we
come across various types of diction.

 Formal diction – formal words are used in formal situations, such as press
conferences and presentations.
 Informal diction – uses informal words and conversation, such as writing or talking
to friends.
 Colloquial diction – uses words common in everyday speech, which may be
different in different regions or communities.
 Slang diction – is the use of words that are newly coined, or even impolite.

Examples of Diction in Literature

Depending on the topics at hand, writers tend to vary their diction. Let us see some
examples of diction in literature:

Example #1: Ode on a Grecian Urn (By John Keats)

John Keats, in his Ode on a Grecian Urn, uses formal diction to achieve a certain effect.
He says:

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on …”

Notice the use of the formal “ye,” instead of the informal “you.” The formality here is due to
the respect the urn inspires in Keats. In the same poem he says:

“Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the spring adieu.”

It is more formal to use “adieu” than to say “goodbye.”

Example #2: The Sun Rising (By John Donne)

In sharp contrast to Keats, John Donne uses colloquialism in his poem The Sun Rising:

“Busy old fool, unruly Sun,

Why dost thou thus,
Through windows, and through curtains, call on us?
Must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?
Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide. “
Treating the sun as a real human being in this excerpt, the poet speaks to the sun in an
informal way, using colloquial expressions. He rebukes the sun because it has appeared
to spoil the good time he is having with his beloved. Further, he orders the “saucy
pedantic sun” to go away.

Example #3: The School (By Donald Barthelme)

Writers skillfully choose words to develop a certain tone and atmosphere in their works.
Read the following excerpt from a short story The School, by Donald Barthelme:

“And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died.
Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t
the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her
own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these
little brown sticks, it was depressing.”

The use of the words “died,” “dead,” “brown sticks,” and “depressing” gives a gloomy tone
to the passage.

Example #4: A Tale of Two Cities (By Charles Dickens)

Sometimes writers repeat their chosen words or phrases to achieve an artistic effect, such
as in the following example from A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter
of despair.”

By repeating the phrase “It was the …” throughout the passage, the writer ensures that
the readers will give more consideration to the characteristic of the era they are going to
read about in the novel.

Function of Diction
In literature, writers choose words to create and convey a typical mood, tone, and
atmosphere to their readers. A writer’s choice of words, and his selection of graphic
words, not only affect the reader’s attitude, but also conveys the writer’s feelings toward
the literary work. Moreover, poetry is known for its unique diction, which separates it
from prose. Usually, a poetic diction is marked by the use of figures of speech, rhyming
words, and other devices.