IMAGERY and its TYPES

Imagery is one figurative language used to represent

objects, actions, and ideas in a manner that appeals to
the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, or touch. It
uses vivid descriptive language to add depth to the
work. Imagery creates mental pictures in the reader as
he/she reads the text. Imagery makes use of figures of
speech in order to appeal to the bodily senses.
1. Visual Imagery – describe what you see; the most common form of imagery
Example: If an author writes, “She’s had chestnut brown hair with glimmering
golden hues,” that’s visual imagery describing a character’s appearance. If an author
writes, “The ancient willow trees swayed in the moonlight,” we’re enjoying visual
imagery as he or she sets the scene.

Here’s a lovely example of visual imagery from Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White:
“In the hard-packed dirt of the midway, after the glaring
lights are out and the people have gone to bed, you will find a
veritable treasure of popcorn fragments. Frozen custard
dribbling, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar
fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice
cream cones and wooden sticks of lollipops.”
2. Olfactory Imagery – describe what you smell
Example: When the main character of a novel walks into his mother’s kitchen and
catches the buttery scent of scones dancing through the air in salutation, don’t be
surprised if that scene takes you back to your Nana’s kitchen stool from your childhood.
Here’s an example from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind:
“In the period of which we speak, there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable
to us modern men and women. The streets stank of manure, the courtyards of urine, the
stairwells stank of moldering wood and rat droppings, the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and
mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust, the bedrooms of greasy sheets, damp
featherbeds, and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. The stench of sulfur rose
from the chimneys, the stench of caustic lye from the tanneries, and from the
slaughterhouses came the stench of congealed blood. People stank of sweat and unwashed
clothes; from their mouths came the stench of rotting teeth, from their bellies that of
onions, and from their bodies, if they were no longer very young, came the stench of rancid
cheese and sour milk and tumorous disease.”
3. Gustatory Imagery – describe what you taste
Example: The author in this kind will take you down sensory highway as you imagine
biting into one of those warm scones while the mixture of flour, butter, and strawberry jam
dances a jig upon your tongue. If you’re lucky enough, you’ll even wash it down with a
sweet sip of honey lemon tea. All in your imagination, of course.
Here’s an example from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez:
“On rainy afternoons, embroidering with a group of friends on the begonia porch, she
would lose thread of the conversation and a tear of nostalgia would salt her palate when she
saw the strips of damp earth and the piles of mud that the earthworms had pushed up in the
garden. Those secret tastes, defeated in the past by oranges and rhubarb, broke out into an
irrepressible urge when she began to weep. She went back to eating earth. The first time she
did it almost out of curiosity, sure that the bad taste would be the best cure for the
temptation. And, in fact, she could not bear the earth in her mouth. But she persevered,
overcome by the growing anxiety, and little by little she was getting back her ancestral
appetite, the taste of primary minerals, the unbridled satisfaction of what was the original
food.”
4. Tactile Imagery – this reaches out to our sense of touch.

Example: Perhaps a shop clerk in Ireland will envelop his customer in a handmade
cashmere wrap while the silky wool breezes against her arm in a whisper of softness.
Or, maybe that same character will take a walk through the Scottish Highlands and
lose her balance as she hops across a stream and brushes against thorny brambles
that scratch and claw at her skin.

Here’s an example from Forrest Gump by Winston Groom:

“It commenced rainin one day an did not stop for two months. We
went thru ever different kind of rain they is, cep’n maybe sleet or hail. It
was little stingin rain sometimes, an big ole fat rain at others. It came
sidewise an straight down an sometimes even seem to come up from
the groun.”
5. Auditory Imagery – describes what you hear
Example: Perhaps a happy couple will scoop their newborn puppy up in the
middle of the night because his yipping was tearing at their eardrums – and their
hearts. And when they take the pup for a walk outside, the chilly fall air will whisper
along their cheeks as they crunch the leaves along the sidewalk, brace against the
screeching winds, and shield themselves from the buzzing city sounds around them.

Here’s an example from Moby Dick by Herman Melville:

“Now small fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning
gulf; a sullen white surf beat against its steep sides; then all
collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it
rolled five thousand years ago.”
FIGURES OF SPEECH
 SIMILE -is a stated comparison (formed with “like” or “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar things that
have certain qualities in common.
 METAPHOR -is a direct comparison between two unlike things that actually have something important in
common.
Example of Simile Example of Metaphor
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun? ‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers-
Or fester like a sore- That perches in the soul-
And then run? And sings the tune without the words-
Does it stink like rotten meat? And never stops – at all –
Or crust and sugar over-
like a syrupy sweet? (“Hope Is The Thing With Feathers”
by Emily Dickinson)
(“What Happens to a Dream Deferred?”
by Langston Hughes)

Explanation: Explanation: Hope is directly compared to feathers

Comparison is done using the word “like.” that perches and sings without tune that never
stops.
 PERSONIFICATION -it endows human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects or
abstractions.
 APOSTROPHE – addressing an absent person or thing that is an abstract, inanimate,
or inexistent character
Example of Personification Example of Apostrophe
“Ah, William, we’re weary of weather,” Death be not proud, though some have called thee
said the sunflowers, shining with dew. Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost
“Our traveling habits have tired us. overthrow
Can you give us a room with a view?” Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill mee.

(“Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow (“Death Be Not Proud”

Room” by John Donne)
by William Blake)

Explanation: Explanation:
The sunflowers are given the human No one is addressed here because death is
ability to speak. not a person or a thing.
 HYPERBOLE -is the use of exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis or exaggerated
effect.
 ALLITERATION – it is use when an initial consonant sound is repeated.
Example of Hyperbole Example of Alliteration
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun: When I see birches bend from left and
O I will love thee still, my dear, right. . .
While the sands o’ life shall run. I like to think some boy’s been swinging
them
(“A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns)
(“Birches” by Robert Frost)

Explanation: Explanation:
The seas will not gang dry; the rocks will The consonant sound [b] is repeated in the
not melt with the sun; the sands shall verse: birches, bend, boy’s, been.
never run.
SYNECDOCHE – a part is used to represent a whole
METONYMY – use of a word or phrase as a substitute for another
Example of Synecdoche Example of Metonymy

“The western wave was all a-flame. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me
The day was well was nigh done! your ears.”
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright Sun” (“Julius Caesar” Act I by William
Shakespeare)
(“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge)

Explanation: Explanation:
The wave is part of the ocean. The wave The word “ears” represents or is used to
refers to the whole ocean. substitute for “close attention.”
 OXYMORON – used when incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side.
PARADOX -a statement that appears to contradict itself.
Example of Oxymoron Example of Paradox

“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! “My heart leaps up when I behold
O anything, of nothing first create! A rainbow in the sky:
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity! So was it when my life began;
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! So is it now I am a man;
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! So be it when I shall grow old.
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! Or let me die!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this. The Child is father of the Man.”
Dost thou not laugh?”
(“My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold”
(“Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, Scene I, By William Wordsworth)
by William Shakespeare)

Explanation: Explanation:
The underlined words contradict each other that The underlined statement contradict itself because
appear side by side. a child can’t be a father to a man.
 ONOMATOPOEIA – uses words that imitate sound associated with objects or actions.
Example of Onomatopoeia

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells –
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

(“Bells” by Edgar Allan Poe)

Explanation:
The sound of bells: tinkle, tintinnabulation, jingling, tinkling.
Activity 1

Direction: Determine what type of figurative speech are the following statements. You can
choose your answer inside the box and write the letter on the blank before the number.
A. Onomatopoeia B. Alliteration C. Paradox D. Synecdoche
E. Metonymy F. Hyperbole G. Apostrophe H. Personification
I. Oxymoron J. Metaphor K. Simile

______1. He is as blind as a bat.

______2. Peter piper picked a peck of peppers.
______3. The sheep went, “Baa!”
______4. Hello, darkness, my old friend.
______5. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.
______6. The captain commands one hundred sails.
______7. That’s pretty ugly to see.
______8. This is the beginning of the end.
______9. The sun smiled down on us.
______10. Life is a rollercoaster.
ASSESSMENT
Directions: Read each item carefully then choose the letter that corresponds to your
answer. Encircle the correct answer.
1. What is the most common form of imagery in literature?
A. Visual
B. Olfactory
C. Gustatory
D. Tactile
2. What figure of speech is a direct comparison between two unlike things that
actually have something important in common.
A. Simile
B. Metaphor
C. Personification
D. Hyperbole
3. What is the perfect example of your answer in item no. 2?
A. Her heart is a cold iron.
B. Lightning danced across the sky.
C. She is as white as a ghost.
D. Her brain is the size of a pea.

4. Which of the following figure of speech is an example of Alliteration?

A. Less is more.
B. He is as big as an elephant.
C. Save money by spending it.
D. She sells seashells by the seashore.

5. What figure of speech endows human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects or

abstractions?
A. Simile
B. Hyperbole
C. Metaphor
D. Personification
6. Which of the following figure of speech is an example of a Paradox?
A. I bought a bag of big bell peppers.
B. It is an ever-fixed mark.
C. He is older than the hills.
D. Less is more.

7. Which of the following figure of speech doesn’t belong to the group?

A. While lounging in the slop pile, the pigs oinked excitedly.
B. That cat will keep meowing until you pet it.
C. Then come, sweet death, and rid me of this grief.
D. Those clucking chickens are driving me crazy!

8. What figure of speech is your answer in item no. 7?

A. Oxymoron
B. Apostrophe
C. Metonymy
D. Onomatopoeia
9. What figure of speech uses of exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis or
exaggerated effect?
A. Personification
B. Simile
C. Hyperbole
D. Metaphor

10. What is the perfect example of your answer in item no. 9?

A. The story jumped off the page.
B. His new car cost a bazillion dollars.
C. She is as innocent as a lamb.
D. Ali is a walking dictionary.