Imagery A

Consider:

The many men, so beautiful

And they all dead did lie:

And a thousand thousand slimy things

Lived on; and so did I.

Within the shadow of the ship

I watched their rich attire:

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black,

They coiled and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire. 

---   Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”

Discuss:    

1. These stanzas from the “the Rime of the Ancient Mariner” show the Mariner’s changing attitude toward the creatures of the sea. What is the Marine’s attitude in the first stanza? What image reveals this attitude? Thousand thousand slimy things reveals the narrators disgust toward the sea creatures.  The connotation of slimy things, “monsters, etc.” would disgust or appall a person.  Thus creating a clear attitude of disgust.
2. What is the Mariner’s attitude in the second stanza? Analyze the imagery that reveals this change. The narrators tone turns from disgust to fascination and awe as he watches the sea creatures more carefully.  The motion of the creatures which coil and swam like fish with flashes of golden fire fascinates the narrator and fills him with a sense of awe.

Apply:

Think of a pet you can describe easily. First, write a description, which reveals a positive attitude toward the animal. Then think of the same animal and write a description which reveals a negative attitude. Remember that the animal’s looks do not change, only your attitude changes. Use imagery rather than explanation to create your descriptions.   My beautiful hound, a canine named millie, joyfully licks my hand for salt, and froliks through green grass and white flowers.

            I’m sitting on my couch, enjoying a hot dog, when out of nowhere, a huge engulfing black hole of a wolf-like death hound comes to take my food down to the underworld.  I try to escape, but I can’t, my hot dog is surrendered, and the hideous beast is stayed, at least for the time being.

Imagery B

Consider:

And now nothing but drums, a battery of drums, the conga drums jamming out, in a descarga, and the drummers lifting their heads and shaking under some kind of spell. There’s rain drums, like pitter-patter but a hundred times faster, and then slamming-the-door-drums and dropping-the-bucket drums, kicking-the-car-fender-drums. Then circus drums, then coconuts falling-out-of-the-trees-and-thumping-against-the-ground drums, then lion-skin drums, then the wacking-of-a-hand-against-a-wall-drums, the-beating-of-a-pillow-drums, heavy-stones-against-a-wall-drums, then the thickest-forest-tree-trunks-pounding-drums, and then the-mountain-rumble-drums, then the little-birds-learning-to-fly drums and the big-birds-alighting-on-a-rooftop-and-fanning-their-immense-wings drums…

- Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

Discuss:

1. Read the passage. How does Hujuelos create the auditory imagery of drumming? In other words, how do the words imitate the sounds they represent?  Through the image of onomatopoeia, auditory imagery, and visual imagery he makes the sounds of the drums.
2. Hujuelos repeats the word then eight times in the passage. What does this repetition contribute to the auditory image of the drumming? This contributes a feeling of ongoing, never stopping like the drums of life, just repetitive and unconquerable.

Apply:

Write a paragraph in which you capture two different sounds at a sporting event. In your paragraph try to imitate sounds themselves with your words. Don’t worry about correct grammar. Instead focus on creating a vivid auditory image.  You will read this in class.  Flying through the air, I hear the whisper of the air between my clothes and my legs as I prepare for a big kick, then I hear the crack of the bones on my toes as I send the ball soaring backfield into the goal.

Imagery C

Consider:

She looked into the distance, and the old terror flamed up for an instant, then sank again. Edna heard her father’s voice and her sister Margaret’s. She heard the barking of an old dog that was chained to the sycamore tree. The spurs of the cavalry officer clanged as he walked across the porch. There was the hum of bees, and the musky odor of pinks filled the air.

Discuss:

1. Although the narrator “looks into the distance,” the images are primarily auditory. What are the auditory images in the passage? What mood do these images create?  A relaxed, kind of stagnant feeling creeps into this tone as she describes the things happening around her, which seem completely ordinary.
2. The last sentence of this passage contains an olfactory image (the musky odor of pinks full the air). What effect does the use of an olfactory image, after the series of auditory images, have on the reader?  It has a more real, and involved effect, making the reader feel like he/she is being drawn into the scene.

Apply:

Write a passage in which you create a scene through auditory imagery. The purpose of your paragraph is to create a calm, peaceful mood. Use one olfactory image to enhance the mood created by auditory imagery.  I stand on theedge of the cliff, looking out into the ocean, listening to the soft ripple of the smooth wind on a nearby umbrella, I hear the smooth roar of the tide breaking on the seashore, I smell the sweet salty air around me, engulfing the peninsula.

Imagery D

Consider:

It was a mine town, uranium most recently. Dust devils whirled sand off the mountains. Even after the heaviest of rains, the water seeped back into the ground, between stones, and the earth was parched again.

              -Linda Hogan, “Making Do”

Discuss:

1.)      What feelings do you associate with images of dusty mountains and dry earth?  parched, dust devils, whirling sand.

2.) These are two images associated with land in the third sentence. Identify the two images and        compare and contrast the feelings these images evoke. the image of dry rain, of seeping back into the ground, and of dry earth, which are kind of related.

 Apply:

Write a sentence describing a rainstorm using imagery that produces a positive response; then write a sentence describing a rainstorm with imagery that produces a negative response. Share your sentences with the class. Briefly discuss how the images create the positive and negative responses.

The rain whirls around me like a cyclone of cool mist, a turnicade of colors, as giant rainbows surround me, i see the shadowy image of the skyscrapers and lights of the city, the street lights reflected in a shimmering endlessness in the black pavements, seeming to fall for an eternity in showers of red, yellow and green.

I sit in my room, and the soud of death hurls itself at me, scraping the windows of my house, i try to run under my bed, but its just as bad, and as dark.  the trees i see out my window shake with merciless laughter, cruelly changing into different monsters, i am alone.