Imagery Exercise

Isis · May 2, 2007

Welcome to an exercise in imagery. Beyond rhyme and meter, beyond subject or form or punctuation or personal style, it is imagery that makes poetry -- and which sometimes gets neglected. This discussion is taken from another forum, from the venerable and experienced MajKaiNis [OP/L frequenters, HAIL]. I certainly didn't write this, but I found it immensely useful. If I could find the original post, I'd link to it [it seems to have disappeared]. Hopefully you all find it helpful as well!

As we further our study of imagery and its use in poetry, I think it's important to take note of the exact role imagery plays. Imagery, at its best, isn't simply the background of our poems or "pretty description." It goes further and deeper: Imagery is the way in which we, as poets, truly communicate with and reach out to connect with the reader.

This of course begs the question "What are we trying to communicate to the reader?" Obviously, of course, this varies not only from poet to poet but from poem to poem. Each word we write in every poem is an attempt to convey some message, idea, or maybe simply a thought.

So when we begin writing a poem, where do we begin? It's a common mistake for young poets to assume that we are attempting to communicate some high and lofty truth to the reader. Well, this is only partially true; the poet is indeed attempting to reveal "the truth" to the reader, but only the truth as it pertains to the poet. Each of us views the world differently, so it is important to remember that abstract ideas and words--the plain and simple descriptors such as love, pain, or happiness--will mean anything and everything to the reader. Because we are separate entities, lacking the knowledge of associations and meanings others attribute to such words, there is no way these words alone can ever truly communicate the intended meaning.

It is at this point that imagery becomes such useful and important tool. Consider the way we understand larger ideas, as individuals: We associate images with words.

Consider the word "happiness." This is an abstract term we can roughly define as "a state of being or condition marked by pleasure or good will." But such a word--as does any word--carries not only a denotative meaning, but a connotative meaning. These connotative meanings are as numerous as the people alive on earth. Each person associates with these words various images and personal meanings.

To you, happiness certainly has different connotations. When you think of happiness, maybe you think of baking cookies in your grandmother's kitchen and having them come out a little too burned to eat; watching your father throw out his last pack of cigarettes, because you finally convinced him to quit; or counting the pocket change on your dresser as a child and realizing you had saved enough to buy a new toy.

Everyone around you will have images like this associated with any word you speak or write. Because of this, we cannot simply rely on words alone to express an idea to another; instead, it is these personal images that allow us to truly convey our thoughts, feelings, or our "point," if you will, to another person.

When I tell you that "I felt happiness," you might assume that I spent the morning baking or that I had found enough pocket change on my dresser to buy something. Certainly, it's a valid assumption, since that is what happiness may mean to you. If I describe the pleasurable smells, feelings, sights, and other physical sensations that I experienced, and if you see the motions of my body and expressions of my face in the delivery of my message--then, and only then, am I truly expressing to you happiness, as I experienced it.

The same is true in a poem. We cannot start big and work small. It's not simply a matter of taking a subject--such as happiness--and telling the reader how we feel about it; we, as poets, are taking the world as it appears to us and presenting it to the reader. This isn't an invitation to pour out our souls or risk entering the realm of "psychobabble." We are seeking not only to emphasize a grand notion or idea--a generalization such as "happiness"--but to present the world through evocative images in a way to which the reader can relate. Perhaps more specifically, we seek to present something through images that the reader could experience him or herself.

Consider this passage from Boisseau and Wallace's Writing Poems:

We're all tempted to write poems that spill out our feelings and proclaim our thoughts. And poets, of course, do express themselves, though rarely as directly as it may seem. Coming are a subject sidelong, though implication, can often help us fully engage it. In the following poem, notice how William Matthews begins by deflecting attention away from himself, thereby taking in the scene's deeper significance:

Men at My Father's Funeral

The ones his age who shook my hand
on their way out sent fear along
my arm like heroin. These weren't
men mute about their feelings,
or what's a body language for?

and I, the glib one, who'd stood
with my back to my father?s body
and praised the heart that attacked him?
I'd made my stab at elegy,
the flesh made word: the very spit

in my mouth was sour with ruth
and eloquence. What could be worse?
Silence, the anthem of my father's
new country. And thus this babble,
like a dial tone, from our bodies.

By decentering the son's grief (which nevertheless lies at the heart of this poem), Matthews can foreground the small gestures that reveal the mourners' hidden feelings: a mixture of generosity and selfishness. The older men lament the loss of their friend and at the same time fear for their own lives. Naturally, the men wouldn't admit or acknowledge, perhaps even to themselves, that they have such feelings, but the poet makes the feelings palpable in the awkward handshakes between the men and the son which jolts his arm "like heroin"--powerful, dangerous, and forbidden.

Another poet might simply say he stood before his father's coffin to eulogize him, but Matthews says he stood with his back to his father's body, suggesting that he, too, wanted to shun the dead, perhaps because his father reminded him of the precariousness of his own life. The son, "The glib one," speaks the appropriate words of praise for his father, thought they turn sour in his mouth for all that remains unsaid. All this noise--body language and spoken language, a babble meaningless as a "dial tone"--speaks of the survivors' desire to drown out the silence they feel hovering behind them. Matthews's poem shows how small, commonplace actions speak more powerfully than grand pronouncements.
Click to expand...

Indeed, it is not the contemplation of grand ideas or revelation of deep personal truths that moves the reader--it is the revelation of ideas through imagery that let the reader relate to a poem and be moved by it. The small actions of a person, the careful descriptions that are telling, the physical sensations that evoke connotations within one's mind, and the focus of a poet on physical objects: These are the things that we must use to communicate.

Addonizio and Laux, in The Poet's Companion, say, "Images are the rendering of your bodily experiences in the world; without them, your poems are going to risk being vague and imprecise, and they will fail to convey much to the reader." Also, remember that "images may be literal: the red kitchen chair in a dim corner of the room; the gritty wet sand under her bare feet. Or they may be figurative, departing from the actual and stating or implying a comparison: the chair, red and shiny as fingernail polish; the armies of sand grains advancing across the wood floor of the beach house." And also keep in mind that images can appeal to all the senses, not just sight--don't forget about smell, taste, hearing, and touch. These can be just as powerful--or perhaps more powerful--than visual references.
Click to expand...

Keeping this discussion in mind, here are a few exercises. Each is very similar to the others, so pick on that you think will be most enjoyable and helpful to you.

1. Write a poem about one of the following, or a similarly odd or unique subject. Flesh it out with carefully chosen details--that is, through images.

Wringer washer
tether ball
bayonets
tattoo parlor
skating backwards
fire ants
bone fractures
sugar cane
pistachios

2. Describe a painting or photograph (not an abstract one, but something that pictures people or objects) as though the scene is really happening; animate it with movement, speech, story.

3. Describe a pair of shoes in such a way that a reader will think of death. Absolutely do NOT mention death in the poem.

4. Make a list of abstractions. Settle on one that appeals to you, and use the word as the title of a poem. Write the poem based on this word, and instead of using the word within the poem, express the abstraction through the use of physical images and concrete description. When you have finished, decide on a title that might be more appropriate for the poem, if you want to (but post the original title word so we can see it).

Gannon · May 8, 2007

*Applauds* great post. Thanks both you and the orig author.

Log in or Sign up

Isis New Member

Imagery Exercise

Gannon Contributor Contributor

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Isis New Member

Imagery Exercise

Gannon Contributor Contributor

Share This Page

Useful Searches