Images in Poetry Bringing a poet’s world into focus...

Why Do Poets Create Images? Poets create images to help you picture the world and to share experiences to stir your imagination or to make you recall a forgotten memory to reveal feelings about the person, place, or thing being described

How Do Poets Create Images? Poets create images by using precise words that appeal to the five senses— sight Digital Imagery copyright © 2004 PhotoDisc, Inc./HRW hearing Digital Imagery copyright © 2004 PhotoDisc, Inc./HRW taste CORBIS Images/HRW touch Digital Imagery copyright © 2004 PhotoDisc, Inc./HRW smell Digital Imagery copyright © 2004 PhotoDisc, Inc./HRW

Appeals to Sight To appeal to the sense of sight, poets may use words that help you picture people, places, and things focus on the background or zoom in on one particular person or object “Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding;” from “A Farm-Picture” by Walt Whitman

Appeals to Hearing To appeal to the sense of hearing, poets may use words that imitate sounds, like thud or boom use words associated with certain sounds, like whistle or thunder “And the mumble of the hummin’birds and buzzin’ of the bees;” from “When the Frost Is on the Punkin” by James Whitcomb Riley

Appeals to Taste, Smell, and Touch To appeal to the senses of taste, smell, and touch, poets may use words that describe flavors, scents, and textures. “The cold wind burns my face, and blows Its frosty pepper up my nose.” from “Winter-Time” by Robert Louis Stevenson

What Have You Learned? 1.Images may reveal feelings about the person, place, or thing being described. a. trueb. false 2.The phrase “the sour juice of lemons” appeals to the sense of a. hearingc. taste b. sightd. touch 3.Which of these words would appeal to a person’s sense of touch? a. bitterc. faded b. slimyd. thunder

The End