1. Imagery
One of the five elements of voice: diction, detail, imagery, syntax and tone.

2. Imagery is a central component of almost all imaginative literature and is often said to be the chief element in poetry. Non-fiction writers also make extensive use of imagery.

3. Two types of imagery
Literal
Figurative

4. Literal Imagery Verbal representation of sensory experience
Literal Imagery Verbal representation of sensory experience. Purely descriptive, representing an object or event with words that draw on or appeal to the kind of experiences gained through the five senses.

5. Literal: Verbal representation of sensory experience
Literal: Verbal representation of sensory experience. Sight (visual imagery) Sound (auditory imagery) Touch (tactile imagery) Taste (gustatory imagery) Smell (olfactory imagery)

6. Figurative Imagery The use of figures of speech, often to express abstract ideas in a vivid and innovative way (e.g. simile, personification, metaphor, etc.).

7. Imagery depends on both diction and detail: an image’s success in producing a sensory experience results from the specificity of the author’s diction and choice of detail.

8. What imagery does: - Contributes to voice by evoking vivid experience, conveying specific emotion and suggesting a particular idea.

9. Whether literal or figurative, imagery is generally intended to make whatever the author is describing concrete in the reader’s mind, to give it some tangible and real existence rather than a purely intellectual one.

10. Imagery also provides the reader with a sense of vividness and immediacy.

11. Visual imagery is most common, but good writers experiment with other types. Some even intermingle the senses using synesthesia (describing one sensory impression with words that normally describe another (e.g. white heat, loud sweater).

12. Imagery may be used to impart figurative or symbolic meaning
Imagery may be used to impart figurative or symbolic meaning. For example, the parched earth can be a metaphor for a character’s despair, or a bird’s flight a metaphor for hope.

13. Traditional imagery typically has a history
Traditional imagery typically has a history. A river, for example, is usually associated with life’s journey.

14. Traditional images are rarely disassociated with their historic meaning. You (students) should examine the traditional meanings of images, the departure from tradition, and the effect of both on meaning.  

15. Also learn to recognize and analyze non-traditional and non-figurative imagery used to influence and sharpen reader perception.

16. Imagery also has a specific and special relation to symbolism
Imagery also has a specific and special relation to symbolism. All symbols depend on images, images that are often repeated to give the symbol cogency and depth.

17. In Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved (1987), the repeated description of Sethe’s scarred back as wrought iron or as a tree serves to make her a symbol of the slave’s extraordinary physical and spiritual suffering and strength.

18. Some critics have suggested that the key to unlocking the meaning of a work lies in identifying its image patterns and understanding how they work together to suggest or symbolize larger meanings of themes.

19. These critics believe that the pattern of imagery in a work more truly revels the work’s meaning that anything explicitly stated by a speaker, narrator, or author.

20. In his poem “Fish” (1922) D.H. Lawrence uses striking imagery to create the visual picture (and tactile sensation) of a fish just caught on a line. The speaker says that he has:

21. Unhooked his gorping, water-horny mouth, And seen his horror-titled eye, His red-gold, water precious, mirror-flat bright eye; And felt him beat in my hand, with his mucous, leaping Life-throb

22. Figurative Imagery- The use of figures of speech, often to express abstract ideas in a vivid and innovative way (e.g. simile, personification, metaphor, etc.).

23. Figurative imagery may call to mind real things that can be perceived by the senses, but it does so as a way of describing something else – often some abstract idea that cannot be literally or directly described.

24. “’Hope is the thing with feathers” – Emily Dickinson

25. “She felt the tug of memory, an image that pulled at her consciousness like a fish on a line.” – Jane Austen.

26. Imagery is one thing that makes E. B
Imagery is one thing that makes E.B. White’s “Once More to the Lake” such a vivid, memorable essay. Imagery is a central component of this descriptive essay, and it is largely imagery that leaves us with a dominant impression of the speaker’s experience at the lake with his son.

27. Imagery contributes to White’s voice by evoking vivid experience, conveying specific emotion and suggesting particular ideas.

28. Assignment: Pore over “Once More to the Lake” with an eye toward White’s use of imagery. Find an example of each type of literal imagery and one example of figurative imagery that functions symbolically.

29. Work Cited Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons:. Classroom Activities to. Teach
Work Cited Dean, Nancy. Voice Lessons: Classroom Activities to Teach Diction, Detail, Imagery, and Tone. Gainesville, Florida: Maupin House, 2000.