Poetic Terms
Images are words or phrases that use description to create pictures, or
images, in the reader’s mind.
Most
images appeal directly to our sense of sight, but images can also appeal to our
sense of sound, taste, smell and touch. The purpose of imagery is to help us
re-create in our own minds the situation which the writer imagines, so that we
can react as we would to the thing or experience itself.
In
her poem “Women”, Alice Walker uses imagery to appeal to our sense of sight,
smell and touch while describing the women of her youth.
WOMEN
ALICE WALKER
THEY WERE WOMEN THEN
MY MAMA’S GENERATION
HUSKY OF VOICE—STOUT OF
STEP
WITH FISTS AS WELL AS
HANDS
HOW THEY BATTERED DOWN
DOORS
AND IRONED
STARCHED WHITE
SHIRTS
HOW THEY LED
ARMIES
HEDRAGGED GENERALS
ACROSS MINED
FIELDS
BOOBY-TRAPPED
DITCHES
TO DISCOVER BOOKS
DESKS
HOW THEY KNEW WHAT WE
MUST KNOW
WITHOUT KNOWING A PAGE
OF IT
THEMSELVES.
Figurative Language A
discourse in which the literal meaning of words is disregarded in order to show
or imply a relationship between diverse things. Such language is made up of figures of speech such as
simile, metaphor, alliteration, and personification.
Simile A comparison between two diverse
images or ideas using like or as.
Metaphor Language
which implies a similar relationship between two dissimilar things.
Alliteration Repetition
of initial consonant sounds.
Personification The act of giving human attributes to
inanimate things or ideas.