AP Term- Imagery

Definition: figures of speech or vivid description, conveying images through any of the senses.

• Imagery involves one or more of your five senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight). An author uses a word or phrase to stimulate your memory of those senses.

Example(s):  

             "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.  

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.  

The following pictures provide further examples of imagery:

Imagery lets the reader experience the sound of heels hitting concrete as the girl runs towards her destination, the smell of the flower the little boy has chosen for his mother, or the sight of another beautiful day filled with smiling faces as the children run across the yard.