Interpretive Exercise #2: Imagery

Here is the second of the interpretive exercises that I would like you to do. Please respond to the prompt below by sending me an email by the due date. Your response should appear in the body of the email, not as an attachment. The subject line should read, “Yourname Imagery Exercise.” I will not give credit for late responses, even if they are caused by computer glitches or other horrendous technical issues. I will respond to your message to let you know I have received it.

At the bottom of the message, I explain that I would like you to find a passage of imagery to interpret. Ideally, you will find an example of imagery in the poem that you decide to analyze for your first essay. Our exchange will then give us an opportunity to discuss ideas that you can pursue in at least one section of your essay.

Imagery, or language that appeals to the senses, is a crucial poetic device. If poets did not have access to the "mighty world / Of eye, and ear," as Wordsworth terms it in "Tintern Abbey," what would they be left with? Just abstractions. It is important to remember that imagery can appeal to all the senses. The sense of sight is probably engaged most frequently; many poems offer passages that "paint a picture" for us to see. But writers also often convey the physical world to us with language that encourages us to imagine hearing, feeling, tasting, and touching as well.  

When you encounter a passage of imagery, it is important, first of all, to identify it as such, acknowledging to yourself that the writer is, for some reason or other, directing your attention to the sensual perception of the physical world. It is a good idea to train yourself to read in this way because imagery is used so frequently that we tend to read over it without realizing its significance.

The first lines of Coleridge's poem "The Eolian Harp" provide a good example:

          My pensive Sara! thy soft cheek reclined

          Thus on mine arm, most soothing sweet it is

          To sit beside our Cot, our Cot o'ergrown

          With white-flowered jasmin, and the broad-leaved myrtle,

          (Meet emblems they of Innocence and Love!)

          And watch the clouds, that late were rich with light,

          Slow saddening round, and mark the star of eve

          Serenely brilliant (such should Wisdom be)

          Shine opposite! How exquisite the scents

          Snatched from yon bean-field! and the world so hushed!

          The stilly murmur of the distant Sea

          Tells us of silence.

What are the words that signal the presence of imagery? To begin with, the nouns indicate physical things that we could sense if we happened to be in this scene with the speaker. We are asked to imagine "pensive Sara," particularly her "cheek" as it rests on the speaker's "arm." We also see their cottage or "Cot," and the natural things surrounding it, the "jasmin" and "myrtle," the "clouds" and "star," the "bean-field" and "Sea."  

The adjectives further alert us to the fact that this passage speaks to our senses. Sara's cheek is "soft"; the jasmin is "white-flowered"; the evening star is "serenely brilliant"; the scents from the bean-field are "exquisite"; the world is "hushed." While the nouns tell us that there are things to appreciate sensually, these words tell us more specifically how they feel, look, smell, and sound.

In some cases, the significance of imagery derives simply from the poet's effort to convey the physical world to the minds of readers. Often, however, imagery comes loaded with additional meanings. In the passage above we can see that the speaker himself draws connections between the physical world he describes and certain abstract ideas. The "white flowered jasmin" supplies a "meet emblem" of innocence, and he makes other connections as well. You might well say that the speaker models the process of interpreting the significance of imagery. But he also leaves much to say about the physical things he enumerates. In this poem about the connection between the human mind and nature, for example, it is probably important that Coleridge depicts a flower-covered cottage, an image that suggests a harmonious blending of the human and natural worlds.

When interpreting imagery, I find it helpful to begin by asking myself a very basic question: are these things designed to generate a positive or a negative feeling? That question may be too simple to do justice to passages that aim to conjure a complex mixture of feelings. But it probably works pretty well as a way to start analyzing many passages. I think most readers would find that the imagery above encourages positive feelings. Everything is so soft and pretty and soothing, from Sara's cheek to the cottage covered with flowers, to the fragrant air and distant lullaby of the sea. The imagery helps to establish a particular mood and tone at the beginning of the poem.

OK, here is your assignment. I would like you to find four lines of poetry that we have read in which you see an interesting example of the poetic device of imagery. First, I would like you to convince me that there is in fact imagery in the passage by identifying the specific words and phrases that convey aspects of the physical, sensual world. Then I would like you to develop the significance of the imagery, showing me how it functions in the poem, what ideas it suggests, what tone or mood it helps to establish. Plan on spending 20-30 minutes writing a couple solid paragraphs.