1. Imagery in Poetry

2. Imagery
Imagery is the author’s use of language that appeals to the five senses in order to help the reader imagine exactly what is being described.
What are the five senses?

3. What is Imagery?
Imagery is when the author or writer uses words to paint a pictures in the reader’s minds.
Imagery is the use of vivid description to capture a specific image and portray that exact image to the reader.

4. My love is like a red, red rose.
Imagery in Poetry
A simile creates imagery
My love is like a red, red rose.
This simile comparing love to a red rose is also imagery because it evokes the image of a red rose (sight and smell) and the softness and fragility of a flower (touch).

5. The vines wove their fingers together to form a braid.
Imagery in Poetry
Imagery in personification
The vines wove their fingers together to form a braid.

6. Imagery in Poetry
Imagery in Metaphor
He has a heart of stone.

7. “Oranges” by Gary Soto
During reading: We will read “Oranges” together as a class once. Then you will reread the poem on your own and complete the “Linecatcher” graphic organizer found below. You will write down four lines that catch their eye or ear in one column and an inference that you make from that line in the second column. The third column is for sensory images.
“Linecatcher”
The line I caught…
I infer…
I can visualize…

8. With a partner, identify at least one example of for each sensory detail, then find specific example for the poetic devices listed.
Sight
Sound
Touch
Smell
Taste
Poetry Device
Example from “Oranges” by Gary Soto
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Partner Work

9. Sight Imagery in “Oranges” breath/Before me, then gone
Porch light burned yellow/ Night and day
face bright/ With rouge
A line/ Of newly planted trees
the candies/ Tiered like bleachers
Light in her eyes, a smile/ Staring at the corners/ Of her mouth

10. Sound Imagery in “Oranges Touch Cold, and weighted down/
With two oranges in my jacket
pulling at her gloves
Touched her shoulder
I fingered/ A nickle in my pocket
A dog barked at me
A tiny bell bringing a saleslady
Frost cracking beneath my steps

11. Literary devices in poetry
… the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Personification: bells don’t bring people
Tiered like bleachers
Simile: the candy organized to look like bleachers
A few cars hissing past
Onomatopoeia: cars aren’t just driving by, they are “hissing,” a word that imitates the sound it attempts to describe
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
Simile: fog looks like old coats
Someone might have thought
I was making fire in my hands.
Metaphor: the orange becomes a fire in his hands.

12. Small Group Discussion
After reading: In a group discuss and answer the following questions:
What feelings did you experience as you read the poem?
What types of imagery did Soto use? How did this add to the impact of the poem?