1. The study of Poetry (Part 2: Imagery)
Dima Abduljabbar
Department of English
Umm AlQura University

2. POETIC SUBGENERES AND KINDS
The study of poetry
When you study (analyze) a poem, you need to focus on certain elements like
POETRY
FORM OR STURCTURE
DICTION
IMAGERY
POETIC SUBGENERES AND KINDS
SOUND
Introduction to Literature, 2018

3. Introduction to Literature, 2018 daabduljabbar@uqu.edu.sa

4. IMAGERY: Descriptive & figurative
Descriptive Imagery
“all of the references to sensory perception”
Figurative (Rhetorical) Imagery:
“a conscious departure from normal conventional ways of saying things. Such unusual use of language is called the “rhetorical” figure of speech.”
Introduction to Literature, 2018

5. Imagery: descriptive
Each one of the following senses creates the below relevant descriptive image:
Sight
Visual
Hearing
Auditory
Smell
Olfactory
Touch
Tactile
Taste
Gustatory
Introduction to Literature, 2018

6. Descriptive imagery: an exercise
Let us analyze the descriptive imagery of the stanza below:
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

7. Descriptive imagery: an exercise
And we will sit upon the rocks, (Tactile) Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks, (Visual) By shallow rivers to whose falls (Auditory, Visual, Tactile) Melodious birds sing madrigals. (Auditory) Do not you smell nature here?
Introduction to Literature, 2018

8. Figurative imagery
To achieve “color, vividness, and intensity” writers sometimes consciously create imagery using specific figurative or rhetorical devices such as
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
Introduction to Literature, 2018

9. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
A comparison of two things, indicated by some connective, usually like, as, than, or a verb such as resembles.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

10. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
An analogy that claims similarity between things that are essentially unlike, but eliminates the comparative words and thus equates the compared items.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

11. Love is a sickness full of woes,
Figurative imagery
O my Luve is like a red, red rose      That’s newly sprung in June;.
Love is a sickness full of woes,
All remedies refusing.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

12. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
When the writer pretends that a non-human subject has the attributes of human being.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

13. Figurative imagery
The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his fingers and Kicked the withered leaves about And thumped the branches with his hand And said that he'd kill and kill, And so he will and so he will.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

14. Figurative imagery
Hyperbole (overstatement): is a figure of speech where an emphasis is through a statement containing exaggeration.
Oxymoron: is a condensed form of PARADOX is which two contradictory words are used together.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

15. Figurative imagery
The sea him lent those bitter tears  Which at his eyes he always wears;  And from the winds the sighs he bore,  Which through his surging breast do roar.
I find no peace, and all my war is done I fear and hope, I burn and freeze like ice, I flee above the wind, yet can I not arise; And naught I have and all the world I season.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

16. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
Metonymy is a figure of speech the name of a thing is substituted for that of another closely associated with it.
Synecdoche is a figure of speech where a part of a thing stands for the whole of it or vice versa.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

17. Metonymy Synecdoche Figurative imagery “Lend me your ears.”
“The White House decided”
“Give me a hand”
“Seek knowledge from cradle to grave.”
“The pen is mightier than a sword.”
Introduction to Literature, 2018

18. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
The SYMBOL is a concrete OBJECT that stands for an abstract idea.
We may also have SYMBOLIC ACTIONS.
The meaning of a symbol is left open and is usually only suggested.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

19. Figurative imagery
A red rose is usually symbolic of love. It might also be a symbol of blood.
The apple is symbolic of knowledge and it can be symbolic of Sin.
Raising/Lowering a country’s flag is a symbolic action that suggest different meanings.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

20. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
An ALLUSION is an indirect reference to any well-known person, place, or thing-fictitious, historical, or actual. An allusion is a reference that may require a background knowledge.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

21. Figurative imagery
“To say: ‘I am Lazarus, come from the dead, Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all —”
“So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.”
“Chocolate is my Achille's heel”.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

22. Figurative imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Personification
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Metonymy & synecdoche
Symbol
Allusion
Apostrophe
An APOSTROPHE is a way of addressing someone or something that is not expected to give an answer.
Introduction to Literature, 2018

23. Figurative imagery
“With how sad steps, O moon, thou climb’st the skies; How silently, and with how wan a face.”
“Death, be not proud […]
Death, thou shalt die”
Introduction to Literature, 2018

24. End of Presentation
Introduction to Literature, 2018