P OETRY U NIT Lesson One Notes: Imagery

L ESSON O NE : I MAGERY Image Single word or phrase that appeals to one of our five senses (sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch) *Sight is the most common – because it is the sense people rely on the most. Imagery Language that a writer uses to appeal to one or more of the reader’s five senses Images and Imagery – what do they do? Re-create an experience the poet wants to share with us Give us the feeling that we are there, a part of it all Can help a reader: See color See motion Hear a sound Smell an odor Feel texture or temperature Taste a flavor

E X. O F I MAGERY Poet, Edwin Arlington Robinson saw an empty house on a hill, and emphasized its loneliness in his poem, “The House on the Hill”: Through broken walls and gray The winds blow bleak and shrill; They are all gone away. Poet, Robert Frost saw an empty house, and emphasized the new life that had moved in in his poem, “The Black Cottage”: “There are bees in this wall.” He struck the clapboards, Fierce heads looked out; small bodies pivoted. We rose to go. Sunset blazed on the windows.

I MAGERY Imagery: part of the poet’s own style Product of the poet’s own way of seeing the world The time and place poets live influences the kind of imagery they use. Poets who live in cities will draw upon the street scenes and industrial landscapes they know and understand. Poets who live in a more rural environment will draw their images from what they see of country life. We learn to identify poets by paying attention to their imagery.

I MAGERY AND F EELINGS Imagery’s Power Imagery can speak to our deepest feelings It can make us feel joy or grief, wonder or horror, love or disgust…etc. The following poem, “Lost” by Carl Sandburg uses images to help us see a scene on the Great Lakes. Think about how the images make you feel: Desolate and lone All night long on the lake Where fog trails and mist creeps, The whistle of a boat Calls and cries unendingly, Like some lost child In tears and trouble Hunting the harbor’s breast And the harbor’s eyes.