Imagery in Literature // Creative writing for SHS students

Learn more on how to use Imagery!

1. Imagery

2. Definition of Imagery
Imagery is language used by poets,
novelists and other writers to create
images in the mind of the reader.
Imagery includes figurative and
metaphorical language to improve the
reader's experience through their
senses.
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3. How do you explain imagery?
Imagery means to use figurative language to
represent objects, actions, and ideas in
such a way that it appeals to our physical
senses. Usually it is thought that imagery
makes use of particular words that create
visual representation of ideas in our minds.
The word “imagery” is associated with mental
pictures.
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4. Types Of Imagery

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Visual Imagery
Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images,
paintings, or images directly experienced through the
narrator’s eyes. Visual imagery may include:
•Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow,
verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.
•Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular,
rectangular, and conical.
•Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized,
large, and gigantic.
•Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged,
jagged, and straight.

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Auditory Imagery
Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music
to noise to pure silence. Auditory imagery may
include:
•Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music,
birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.
•Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a
broom moving across the floor, and the sound of
broken glass shattering on the hard floor.
•The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or
eerie silence.

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Olfactory Imagery
Olfactory imagery describes what we smell.
Olfactory imagery may include:
•Fragrances, such as: perfumes, enticing food
and drink, and blooming flowers.
•Odors, such as: rotting trash, body odors, or
a stinky wet dog.

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Gustatory Imagery
Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory
imagery can include:
•Sweetness, such as: candies, cookies, and desserts.
•Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as:
lemons and limes.
•Saltiness, such as: pretzels, French fries, and
pepperonis.
•Spiciness, such as: salsas and curries.
•Savoriness, such as: a steak dinner or thick soup.

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Tactile Imagery
Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or
touch. Tactile imagery includes:
•Temperature, such as: bitter cold, humidity,
mildness, and stifling heat.
•Texture, such as: rough, ragged, seamless, and
smooth.
•Touch, such as: hand-holding, one’s in the grass,
or the feeling of starched fabric on one’s skin.
•Movement, such as: burning muscles from exertion,
swimming in cold water, or kicking a soccer ball.

11. The Importance of Using Imagery
Because we experience life through our senses, a
strong composition should appeal to them through the
use of imagery. Descriptive imagery launches the
reader into the experience of a warm spring day,
scorching hot summer, crisp fall, or harsh winter. It
allows readers to directly sympathize with characters
and narrators as they imagine having the same sense
experiences. Imagery commonly helps build compelling
poetry, convincing narratives, vivid plays, well-
designed film sets, and descriptive songs.
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12. Examples Of Imagery

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Imagery using visuals:
“The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in
beautiful and varied constellations which were sprinkled across the
astronomical landscape.”
In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth
with color (black as ever, bright), shape (varied constellations), and
pattern (sprinkled).
Imagery using sounds:
“Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began
practicing her concerto.”
Here, auditory imagery breaks silence with the beautiful sound of piano
keys.

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Imagery using scent:
“She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the air, its
tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a beautiful place.”
The scent of hibiscus helps describe a scene which is relaxing, warm,
and welcoming.
Imagery using taste:
“The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet chocolate and
slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together on her tongue.”
Thanks to an in-depth description of the candy’s various flavors, the
reader can almost experience the deliciousness directly.

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Imagery using touch:
“After the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and burning
muscles. The grass tickled his skin and sweat cooled on his brow.”
In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained
muscles, grass’s tickle, and sweat cooling on skin.

16. Imagery in Literature

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Example 1:
Excerpt describing a fish:
“his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.”
This excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” is brimming
with visual imagery. It beautifies and complicates the image of a
fish that has just been caught. You can imagine the fish with
tattered, dark brown skin “like ancient wallpaper” covered in
barnacles, lime deposits, and sea lice. In just a few lines, Bishop
mentions many colors including brown, rose, white, and green.

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Example 2:
Another example:
“A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit.
Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished cabinet, a
secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly
turned dovetail joint, and here she kept a diary locked by a clasp,
and a notebook written in a code of her own invention. … An old tin
petty cash box was hidden under a removable floorboard beneath her
bed.”
In this excerpt from Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, we can almost
feel the cabinet and its varnished texture or the joint that is
specifically in a dovetail shape. We can also imagine the clasp
detailing on the diary and the tin cash box that’s hidden under a
floorboard. Various items are described in-depth, so much so that
the reader can easily visualize them.

19. Tips to Use Your Five Senses When Writing:
1.Sight. The most often used sense when writing is sight.
2.Hearing. Loud, soft, yell, whisper, angry, and all kinds
of other adjectives are used for sound.
3.Smell. Smell is another one of those senses that's
different for each of us.
4.Touch. The way things feel is more than just texture and
temperature.
5.Taste.
6.Resources.
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20. References:
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https://askinglot.com/what-is-
imagery-in-creative-writing
https://askinglot.com/open-
detail/249641

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Thanks For
Listening!
Pagulayan, Rhebecca Mae
HUMSS 301