Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imagery
The big question
How and why does imagery appeal?
Key learning ideas
●● Imagery appeals to our physical senses.
●● Imagery appeals to our emotions.
●● Imagery appeals to our thoughts.
91
The mind’s eye . . .
Tuning in
1 Think: Consider the various meanings of the word image:
●● picture
●● photograph
●● artwork
Literature link
●● computer graphic
The popularity of poetry
●● a reflection seen in a mirror
●● John Keats
●● Kenneth Slessor.
Find a striking word image in the poem and record it in your notebook. Share with
the class.
4 Write: Write your own one-sentence definition of poetry.
Unit 4 Imagery 93
4.1
Sensory images
How do writers use imagery to appeal to our physical senses?
Need to know Imagery that appeals to our physical senses can be created through descriptive
simile a figurative description techniques. These tools are helpful to writers because they convey a lot of meaning
that makes a comparison using few words. In poetry and other creative writing, we frequently encounter
between two things, using the
words like or as. For example: images created by figurative language using figures of speech such as similes and
The exploding firecracker looked metaphors. The poem extract below is a good example of how the poet has used
like a gigantic blossoming flower imagery through metaphor.
or The dawn was as fresh as a
newborn baby’s breath.
metaphor a figurative
description in which we are from The Jaguar
asked to picture one thing as
actually having the qualities
by D. J. Brindley
of another; for example, my 1 Sleek-bodied, Images suggest a living thing
train of thought was suddenly With gleaming flanks. — an animal. (1–3)
derailed
Nature’s latest model. Nature suggests an animal. (3)
Caught in the rays of the afternoon’s dying sun
5 For a brief moment,
The light shining and rippling down the long smooth side.
There she stands, Images of light and texture/touch (6)
Purring gently,
Sound echoes the sense in this
Engine ticking over.
example of onomatopoeia. (8)
10 Then,
Engine suggests a car. (9)
Deftly, gracefully,
She moves into first gear; First gear suggests a car. (12)
Slides forward,
Gathers speed; Throttle suggests a car. (15)
15 Until with throttle open
Both an engine and a jaguar can
She utters her full-throated roar,
roar. (16)
And unleashed
Leaps across the intersection — Intersection suggests a car. (18)
‘Sense’ appeal
Similes and metaphors are powerful literary devices that can deliver messages directly
to our physical senses. Australian poet Kenneth Slessor uses them extensively to
achieve this in his poem ‘Country Towns’.
Before you read the poem, your teacher may ask you to complete the following
Ready to Read activities.
Unit 4 Imagery 95
READY TO READ …
●● Do you live in a city or a country town?
●● Describe to a partner the sights and
sounds you know or imagine can be
experienced in a country town.
●● Take it in turns with a partner to read
the poem aloud.
●● Look at how the poet uses punctuation
and use this to guide you as you read.
●● Count the verses or stanzas in the
poem.
1 Country Towns The poem consists of verses or stanzas. The structure is regular,
with four lines in each stanza, and a regular rhyming scheme. (1)
by Kenneth Slessor
Country towns, with your willows and squares,
And farmers bouncing on barrel mares
5 To public houses of yellow wood
Sight imagery features in the first stanza. (3–8)
With ‘1860’ over their doors,
And that mysterious race of Hogans Alliteration creates the image of farmers riding
Which always keeps the General Stores . . . overweight horses. (4)
Unit 4 Imagery 97
Working through
Need to know 11 Consider the images created by alliteration. Quote two such images from the
alliteration the repeated poem.
use of one consonant 12 What do you think the metaphor ‘sarcasm of flies’ means?
for special effect; for 13 Think about the isolated settings of many country towns in Australia. What
example, suspicious signs
images in the poem support the idea that country towns are isolated?
Going further
14 What emotions were evoked in you when you read this poem? Do these feelings
match the opinions of country towns that are expressed by the poet?
15 Do you feel that Slessor is being critical of country town life in this poem?
Explain your response.
Language link
Onomatopoeia — suggestions, not sounds
Use the Onomatopoeia
weblink in your Onomatopoeia is not a very realistic way to as there are no rules for their creation. Have
eBookPLUS to read portray sounds. Over the years, readers have you ever heard a cat say meow, mew or
students’ poems using become conditioned to accept various ideas miaow? Did you know that in Greek cats say
about how certain things sound; for example, niaou, and in French dogs say ouah ouah.
onomatopoeia.
bells go ding dong. Onomatopoeic words are With onomatopoeia, the possible variations
usually quite familiar to us from childhood. are endless.
Although they don’t really represent realistic
noises, they enable us to make attempts at Create your own onomatopoeic word to
spelling common sound effects. Many poets describe the sound of a bell ringing, a
enjoy making up new onomatopoeic words, loud car stereo or the rain on a tin roof.
1 List the colours, objects and actions in the poem that appeal specifically to the
sense of sight. Then create an additional visual image of your own.
Tactile images
The word tactile refers to the sense of touch. Imagery describing tactile experiences
connect with recollections of physical feelings. In ‘Country Towns’, Slessor helps us
recall the physical feelings we experience when we are relaxed, including stretching,
having heavy eyelids, and having our muscles so relaxed that we drift off to sleep.
These sensations are described using words such as drown and drowse, which
appeal to our sense of touch.
5 Create an additional tactile image of your own.
Unit 4 Imagery 99
Images that engage multiple senses
Often, writers will use imagery to appeal to more than one of the physical senses.
An example of a combined image in ‘Country Towns’ is the line ‘Mulberry faces
dozing deep’. The word mulberry brings to mind both the colour (visual) and the
fruit (gustatory), while dozing makes a z sound (aural) like snoring.
6 Discuss with a partner the power of combining the effects of sensory imagery to
create a lasting impression.
Over to you …
Close your eyes and try to visualise the scene that Slessor is describing. Now think of
the suburb or town where you live. Think about the following prompts.
●● Which objects are in view? What are their relative sizes and shapes?
●● Which colours dominate the landscape? How do they make you feel?
●● What sounds can you hear in the scene you are visualising?
●● Can you smell or taste anything that is connected to life in your suburb or town?
Write an example of every sensory image to describe your suburb or town, based
on the prompts above. Then see if you can structure these images into a poem
using ‘Country Towns’ as a model.
My view . . .
Why do you think poets and other writers try to create images that appeal to our
physical senses? Is poetry the best way to write with an appeal to the senses?
Imagine how your world would be without one of your five senses. How different
would it be?
READY TO READ …
●● Try to imagine this sight: You are standing on a beach watching a stranded
whale struggling to get back to deep water. What can you hear, feel, smell and
taste in this scene?
●● From the title of this poem, what do you predict it is about?
●● Look at the photograph under the poem on page 102. What information does
it give you?
●● Read the poem, ignoring the annotations.
●● Now read the poem again using the annotations. Think about how they help
you to understand the poem. Does reading them change the feelings you
experienced on your first reading? How?
●● Remember to look out for any words and phrases that appeal to your senses
or create images in your mind. Think about which of your physical senses are
being appealed to.
●● List some words that come to mind when you think of whales.
●● Use the punctuation in the poem to guide you in your reading.
All daubed with gore in demonstration of their art: The scientific accuracy is at odds with what the
20 Flailing skin from flesh; flensing flesh from bone. poet values in the next line: whale song — a
They bring indignity to death and then go home symbol of the whale’s freedom and beauty.
(22,23)
With body parts each sealed in plastic bag
— But none has ‘whale song’ written on its tag. The alliteration of the soft w sounds contrasts
with the earlier harsh, clinical descriptions of
And if I knew a way of whispering to whales, flesh and flensing. (24–28)
25 I’d tell them all to thresh their winging tails; Repetition of the idea of whale song (26,28)
To sing one last, wild, lovely, wailing song;
The poet would prefer that the whale had
To wend that long, last journey — oh so long:
died a natural death in the sea. (29)
‘Sing!’ I’d whisper, ‘Fly! Swim! — for your lives!
‘To die — away, far, far, away from men with knives.’ Repetition strengthens urgency
of advice. (29)
probing brain red heart daubed with gore flensing flesh from bone
Sight Touch
7 Which colours are suggested by the imagery? Using quotes from the poem,
discuss the colour theme maintained in the poem. How effective is this?
8 Identify two metaphors for the sun and the sand. What feelings do these images
convey?
language in poetry
Opinion Held by
to express
personal views The whale is obstructing boats.
Evaluative language The reasons for the whale’s death should be investigated.
is positive or negative The whale should be allowed to die with dignity.
language that judges The sight of a dead whale on the beach is interesting.
the worth of something.
Poets may use evaluative
language to position the Analysing the poem
reader by creating strongly
emotional messages. Getting started
11 What idea is the poet expressing about ‘whale song’?
In ‘Post-mortem’ and ‘The
Catch’ (see the Wordsmith 12 Why does the poet wish she was able to whisper to whales?
on pages 105–6) powerful 13 Summarise why the poet finds the behaviour of the researchers upsetting.
word images are intended to
Working through
influence readers to take a
critical view of the treatment 14 What is the poet’s purpose in this poem? Who is she speaking to?
of the whale and the shark in 15 Identify the emotive words and phrases in this poem. List them under the
the respective poems. But is headings ‘Positive feelings’ and ‘Negative feelings’.
a picture worth a thousand
words? Are you more
16 Which words are repeated in the last stanza? What effect does this repetition
likely to be influenced by a have on the mood of the poem?
photograph of a beached 17 How closely do the poet’s feelings match with yours when you read this poem?
whale than a poem about it? Do you think she is being overly sentimental or do you have feelings similar to
Compare your emotional those she expresses?
response to the imagery
in the poem ‘Post-mortem’ Going further
and in the photograph 18 The poet is relying on emotive language to persuade readers that scientists are
that illustrates the wrong to treat whales in this way. How successful is she in achieving this?
poem. Which response is
stronger? Why? RESPONDING to the poem
Getting started
19 Write a paragraph in which you describe the whale the hour before it became
stranded on the beach. Use adjectives and similes to create a sensory and
emotive description.
20 Write a letter to Mary B. Armitage telling her how her poem made you feel. Use
some quoted lines from the poem as examples.
Working through
21 Write a short dialogue between Mary B. Armitage and one of the researchers
depicted in ‘Post-mortem’. In the conversation, try to convey the viewpoints of
both individuals, as they are represented in the poem.
Going further
22 Imagine that the whale depicted in ‘Post-mortem’ died of old age
somewhere away from human interference. Describe the scene.
Use imagery that appeals to the physical senses and the
emotions to show the contrast between the new scene
and the undignified scene described in the poem.
●● after you have made the annotations, take a minute to look for patterns. For
example, has one type of technique been used repeatedly? Is there more aural
imagery than visual? Can you identify a rhyming scheme? Are there more similes
than metaphors? Are there techniques that produce strongly emotive effects?
●● determine whether the poem is more than just a collection of images. Is it, for
The Catch
by Michelle Williams
They caught it and thought they were heroes.
Smiling like idiots they posed with stubbies
And punched one another playfully
While bulbs popped in the dark.
The crowd applauded with gusto
Ogling the monster hanging from the winch,
Fantastically curious now the attraction could not be fatal.
Some prodded the black, jellied eyes
Marvelling how Death’s intensity seemed still to chill them . . .
Some stroked the leathery skin
And relished the slime of blood on their fingertips
As if touching the beast made them part of his capture . . .
Involved them somehow in the ignominious end, where
‘He got his due for tangling with us!’
Over to you …
1 Copy out ‘The Catch’ in double spacing on a blank page. Alternatively, cut and paste
the poem from your eBookPLUS into a Word document. Then practise making
annotations to highlight the emotive imagery.
2 Devise a key to explain your annotation system. For example, you could decide to
mark metaphors in yellow, personification in purple, visual images in red, tactile
images in orange, and alliteration in blue.
3 Ensure that each annotation is linked to a brief explanatory note.
Warning: Some words or phrases may be examples of more than one poetic
technique — just to keep you on your toes!
My view . . .
Strongly emotive imagery may make some people feel uncomfortable. Why do
you think this is? What is your emotional response to some of the word images
you have encountered in this section? Do you feel comfortable experiencing
strong emotions and thinking about your feelings and thought processes? If not,
how could you get more connected to your feelings through your writing?
READY TO READ …
●● Find out what Britannia refers to before
you start reading.
●● Keep in mind that the language in the
song lyrics is from 300 years ago.
●● If possible, listen to a recording of the
song before you read it.
Australians have a number root thy native oak a thousand foreign shores native versus foreign
of popular songs that are
sometimes regarded as Choose two of the contrasts presented in the table and write one paragraph
anthems, even though
they were not all written explaining the emotive impact of the ideas expressed when they are considered
for that purpose. These side by side.
include Waltzing Matilda, I 15 Create a mindmap that summarises in point form the ideas presented in the two
Still Call Australia Home, I Am
Australian and Land Down
songs. Think about how you will visually represent the contrasting emotions in
Under. Despite these songs each one. Draw or copy pictures or graphics that can be added to your mindmap
being popular, only Advance to reinforce the key ideas. Think about how your images relate to the physical
Australia Fair has the title of senses as well as the emotions associated with this topic.
our official ‘national anthem’.
Going further
Do you have a favourite
song that could be 16 Both songs appeal to a sense of national pride. How have the writers used
described as an ‘anthem’ imagery to appeal to a citizen’s national pride?
in a certain culture or
subculture? Compare your
choices with a partner.
Creating responses to the songs
Getting started
17 Imagine you are one of the people referred to in ‘When Britannia Ruled the
Waves’. Write a short paragraph in the first person, saying why you agree or
disagree with the songwriter.
Working through
18 Choose one aspect of ‘When Britannia Ruled the Waves’ and develop five
additional sensory images that help to illustrate the ideas being presented.
19 Obtain a copy of Australia’s national anthem ‘Advance Australia Fair’. What
similarities can you find between it and ‘Rule, Britannia!’? Write a paragraph
discussing this, considering subject matter, tone, and use of imagery in your
Use the Australian discussion.
anthems weblink in
your eBookPLUS to read Going further
the lyrics of popular 20 Should songwriters be free to criticise past governments in the way that Roger
Australian songs. Corbett has done?
Discuss your ideas with a partner.
21 Choose one of the ‘anthems‘ referred to in the Literature link
above left and find a copy of the lyrics. How important is imagery
in the anthem as a means of inspiring the reader or listener?
●● Step 2: Locate an example of that technique in the text. This will be the line, phrase or
Symbolism A literary device that uses one thing Appeals to the readers’ intellect by
to represent or suggest something asking them to think beyond the
else literal meaning to a symbolic or
figurative meaning
Alliteration The repeated use of one The sound pattern catches the reader’s or
consonant for special effect; listener’s attention and makes the words
for example, suspicious signs memorable. It can sometimes have an
onomatopoeic effect.
Assonance Creates sound effects with The sound pattern catches the reader’s or
vowels; for example, slow listener’s attention and makes the words
blowing of the bellows memorable. It can sometimes have an
onomatopoeic effect, and can be used to
speed up or slow down the language.
Rhyme The matching of vowel and Creates a pattern so that the reader or listener
consonant sounds in a given knows what to expect, and can remember the
pattern at the end of a line poem or song more easily
of verse
Rhythm A pattern of stressed and Makes the difference between prose and
unstressed syllables; also poetry; helps to make a poem or song
known as meter when it is a memorable
consistent, repeating pattern
Onomatopoeia The use of words that imitate Adds to the aural sensory experience by
the sound they refer to; for imitating sounds
example, the hiss of escaping
gas
Over to you …
Follow steps 1 to 3 on page 114 to write paragraph-length responses to your choice of
two of these ‘how’ questions:
1 How have the poets created unpleasant sensory images in ‘Post-mortem’ and ‘The
Catch’?
2 How has Kenneth Slessor captured the sounds of a typical country town in his poem
‘Country Towns’?
3 How has the creator of ‘The Jaguar’ used feline (cat-like) imagery to present their
idea? Compare their use of imagery. Remember to use examples from the poem.
4 How has one poet whose poem you have read in this unit powerfully conveyed his
or her views on universal human themes?
Refer to the Wordsmith on structure of a paragraph using a topic sentence and
supporting sentences in Unit 5, page 145.
My view . . .
Why do you think some writers use poetry or songs as a vehicle to express
criticism? What issues do you feel strongly about? How could you best express
your own personal protest about some of these issues? How valuable a tool
would imagery be in this endeavour?
●● a surfboard ●● a disease.
Step 3: Create an image that appeals to each of the following senses on the subject of
the seasons, holidays or friendship:
●● visual ●● olfactory
●● aural ●● tactile.
●● gustatory
Or
Write a poem that uses sensory imagery following the steps below.
Step 1: Listen to a sound recording of a piece of classical music, performed by an
orchestra. A suggestion is ‘Spring’, from Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Seasons’. As you listen,
close your eyes and try to picture a place that suits the sound of the music.
Step 2: Make a list of any words or phrases that come into your mind. They may refer to
places, objects or colours, or they may be adjectives, names or common nouns.
Step 3: Select the most suitable words from your list. Use them as starting points to
make up six descriptions containing imagery to convey your feelings about
the music. You might choose to use one technique or a variety to create the
imagery.
Step 4: Draft a short poem in which you use these six descriptions. You will need to add
other lines to make the poem complete.
Step 5: Listen to the music again. Check to see that the poem captures your thoughts
and feelings about that piece of music.
That day
by Janice Cousens
It was a day like any other
That day you went away.
If I’d known your thoughts
My airy goodbye would have been
More solid, more grounded.
Perhaps it would have held you fast,
Stopped you floating skywards
Like a balloon in the breeze.
How was I to know
That day was different?
Why didn’t you say,
‘This day is not like any other
This day will end
With your tears’?
Why didn’t you say?
That day.
Either
Use the poem extract as a stimulus to write your own poem about a global issue
that you feel strongly about, using strong imagery to make your point. Suitable
issues might be:
● the destruction of rainforests
● global warming
Or
Write an analytical response to the question: How does Bruce Dawe use imagery
in the extract from the poem ‘The Sadness of Madonnas’ to convey a vivid and
emotional experience for the reader?
? Self-evaluation . . .
1 What new writing strategies have you learned or developed during this unit?
2 How did you feel about tasks that asked you to create your own poetry?
3 Do you feel you have a better understanding of how imagery can be used to
appeal to the physical senses?
4 Do you feel that you value poetry differently, now that you have learned
more about how imagery can also appeal to the emotions and thoughts?
INDIVIDUAL PATHWAYS
Worksheet 4.1 Worksheet 4.2 Worksheet 4.3
doc-10496 doc-10497 doc-10498