What do imagery mean

Our next type of imagery is auditory imagery. Creating an auditory experience through text can be difficult. But it can also be necessary for a story or plot. For example, the sound of war can be necessary to immerse the reader into a war novel. This may be used to describe gunfire, explosions, screams, and helicopters.

As you can see from this example, writers will also enlist the use of onomatopoeia to create the actual sound of an action or effect through text. This can make reading a story more experiential. This would most commonly be used to describe food as a character eats it. Lewis uses gustatory imagery to describe its taste. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious.

He was quite warm now, and very comfortable. Gustatory imagery can be incredibly effective when describing unpleasant tastes as well. Olfactory imagery is a great way to better describe both what a character is experiencing as well as the world of the novel, poem, or other writing. The smell of fresh rain, smoke from a fire, or gasoline can be described through olfactory imagery. Note the comparisons Irwin used to create the olfactory imagery and paint a picture of the smell.

It was a scent as old as the world. It was a hundred aromas of a thousand places. It was the tang of pine needles. It was the musk of sex. It was the muscular rot of mushrooms. It was the spice of oak. Meaty and redolent of soil and bark and herb. It was bats and husks and burrows and moss. It was solid and alive - so alive! And it was close. To create the sensory experience of touch through text, writers utilize tactile imagery. This type of imagery can be used to describe how something feels such as texture, temperature, wetness, dryness, etc.

Evenings in that part of the country must have been a kind of sad relief. But today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhuman and oppressive. As you can see from this example, this can be tremendously effective when characters are undergoing some type of turmoil. Kinesthetic imagery is used to describe the sensory experience of motion.

What does imagery mean? By adding these details, it makes our writing more interesting. We mentioned that imagery appeals to one or more of our five senses. Imagery is important for writers to use in order for their language to appeal to the reader. Without imagery, readers may not imagine the world or situation in the intended manner the author had in mind.

Imagery is very important when writing fiction because the authors are required to use their words in order for the reader to imagine their stories. Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began practicing her concerto. 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 candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together on her tongue. 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.

Visual imagery may include:. Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure silence. Auditory imagery may include:. 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. Imagery is found throughout literature in poems, plays, stories, novels, and other creative compositions. Here are a few examples of imagery in literature:. Excerpt describing a fish :. It beautifies and complicates the image of a fish that has just been caught. In just a few lines, Bishop mentions many colors including brown, rose, white, and green. 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.

Various items are described in-depth, so much so that the reader can easily visualize them.