Imagery & Figurative Language

An”image” is “a word or sequence of words that refers to any sensory experience”

Imagery

What are your five senses? Hearing, Sight, Taste, Touch, and Smell.

 An image conveys a sense perception , i.e., a visual picture, a sound, a feeling of touch, a taste, or an odor.

 Imagery is a noun used to refer to a set of related images in a piece of writing or the totality of images in the writing.

Figures of Speech

Figurative language uses figures of speech to convey unique images and create some sort of special effect or impression.

A “figure of speech” is an intentional deviation from the ordinary usage of language.

 Writers often create images or enhance meaning by comparing one thing to another for special effect.

 A most important figure of speech is the

Metaphor.

Metaphor

 The term metaphor has two meanings: a broad, more general meaning and a concise, specific meaning.

 All figures of speech which use association, comparison, or resemblance can generally be called types of metaphor, or metaphorical.

 One specific figure of speech which compares two things by saying that one IS the other is called a metaphor.

Simile

 A simile is a type of metaphor, a figure in which an

explicit

comparison is made using the comparative words

like

,

as, resembles, than

. Similes are easy to spot.

(X is like Y: X is compared to Y in order to illustrate X more fancifully, poetically, or effectively.  My love is like a red, red rose.

 We were as quiet as frightened mice.



More

ways to make a simile:

My love is like a red, red rose.

My love resembles a rose.

My love is redder than a rose.

She came out smelling like a rose!

Metaphor

 A metaphor also compares, but is a bit more sophisticated than a simile.  In a metaphor, the words

like

or

as

are missing. Readers have to recognize the comparison on their own without those easy words which help us to spot a simile so quickly.

Metaphor (continued)

In a metaphor, a writer states that X

is

Y. Readers understand that we are not to take the comparison literally, but that the metaphor helps us to see X in a new way.

EXAMPLE: My brother is a prince.

More metaphors

Her eyes are dark emeralds. Her teeth are pearls.

Avoid

Mixed

Metaphors -combining two or more incompatible images in a single figure of speech

Examples:

Personification

1. "The ancient car groaned into third gear." 2. "The cloud scattered rain throughout the city." 3. "The tropical storm slept for two days." The nonliving objects in the above sentences (car, cloud, storm) have been given human qualities (groaned, scattered, slept). Adding meaning to nonliving or nonhuman objects in this manner is called personification.