Imagery in Poetry: Learn it and Identify it!
The language we use daily is filled with dead images, images that are overused. For example, when we say that "he is a real pig when it comes to buffets", we all know what is meant and the metaphor here is very familiar. So if we said instead, "he is a real bulldozer when it comes to buffets", we convey largely the same meaning - that he eats a lot - but now there is the attendant meaning of speed, massive loads and an image of him clearing the trays and the tables. You can come up with even more creative metaphors, I'm sure.
If you are just about to start with a term of poetry reading like many lower Secondary pupils in Singapore, it pays to understand three figures of speech used commonly in poetry.
They are similes, metaphors, and personifications.
Similes and Metaphors
Both the simile and the metaphor involve comparison. They always contain two parts. You can call the two parts "X" and "Y". Think of these as the two things that you are trying to compare.
The first example some teachers like to refer to is
Simile: "My love is like a red, red rose."
Metaphor: "My love is a red rose."
Or in prose
Simile: "His job is like a millstone round his neck."
Metaphor: "His millstone job leaves him with little time to spare beyond the daily grind"
A simile makes a direct comparison between two unlike subjects. The simile always uses the words "like" or "as".
Examples: "Sadness falls inside me like the rain: Waves crashing on the ocean look like knives; I wandered lonely as a cloud"
The metaphor, on the other hand, becomes - for the purposes of understanding the poet's meaning or capturing his vision - the thing itself. A metaphor is an image foisted upon the comparison without using "like" or "as". X is just Y.
Example: "Fog comes in on little cat's feet ; April is my girlfriend's face; All the world's a stage"
When Sept 11 blasts hit the US, newspapers all over the world caught on to the fact that what was targeted were symbols of US power. The World Trade Centre was an international commerce node and the Pentagon was an emblem of US military power and command. Physically, huge buildings came down crashing and burning; but the significance of the attack was really in the destruction of metaphors of economic dominance and global influence.
Personification
Person-i-fication is used when human characteristics are given to non- human subjects such as: "Father time; Whispering trees; Babbling brook"
Any animated movie - think of Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Over the Hedge, The Lion King, Antz, Madagascar, A Shark's Tale - that has animals,birds, sea-creatures, insects, trees, shrubs living, conspiring and sinning like humans is a clear modern-day use of personification. The early use of personification was to teach in a non-didactic way. Somehow, we find it easier to accept life's truths from a story if the hard lessons were learnt by other living things.
Learn these 3 first and then let's throw in one more: anthropomorphization. This is a figure of speech where a non-animate thing is given human-like attributes (think of the cups and saucers in Disney's Beauty and the Beast). I have been told programmers also anthropomorphize their programmes and speak of their programmes as if they had human attributes. Here is a popular example from John Donne's poetry:
"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;"
So imagery is rife in our daily discourse. When a toothpaste advert shows you a army of marauding bacteria going for a set of teeth, you can say, " Personification!" Next time you hear it, you can identify it!
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If you are just about to start with a term of poetry reading like many lower Secondary pupils in Singapore, it pays to understand three figures of speech used commonly in poetry.
They are similes, metaphors, and personifications.
Similes and Metaphors
Both the simile and the metaphor involve comparison. They always contain two parts. You can call the two parts "X" and "Y". Think of these as the two things that you are trying to compare.
The first example some teachers like to refer to is
Simile: "My love is like a red, red rose."
Metaphor: "My love is a red rose."
Or in prose
Simile: "His job is like a millstone round his neck."
Metaphor: "His millstone job leaves him with little time to spare beyond the daily grind"
A simile makes a direct comparison between two unlike subjects. The simile always uses the words "like" or "as".
Examples: "Sadness falls inside me like the rain: Waves crashing on the ocean look like knives; I wandered lonely as a cloud"
The metaphor, on the other hand, becomes - for the purposes of understanding the poet's meaning or capturing his vision - the thing itself. A metaphor is an image foisted upon the comparison without using "like" or "as". X is just Y.
Example: "Fog comes in on little cat's feet ; April is my girlfriend's face; All the world's a stage"
When Sept 11 blasts hit the US, newspapers all over the world caught on to the fact that what was targeted were symbols of US power. The World Trade Centre was an international commerce node and the Pentagon was an emblem of US military power and command. Physically, huge buildings came down crashing and burning; but the significance of the attack was really in the destruction of metaphors of economic dominance and global influence.
Personification
Person-i-fication is used when human characteristics are given to non- human subjects such as: "Father time; Whispering trees; Babbling brook"
Any animated movie - think of Finding Nemo, Ice Age, Over the Hedge, The Lion King, Antz, Madagascar, A Shark's Tale - that has animals,birds, sea-creatures, insects, trees, shrubs living, conspiring and sinning like humans is a clear modern-day use of personification. The early use of personification was to teach in a non-didactic way. Somehow, we find it easier to accept life's truths from a story if the hard lessons were learnt by other living things.
Learn these 3 first and then let's throw in one more: anthropomorphization. This is a figure of speech where a non-animate thing is given human-like attributes (think of the cups and saucers in Disney's Beauty and the Beast). I have been told programmers also anthropomorphize their programmes and speak of their programmes as if they had human attributes. Here is a popular example from John Donne's poetry:
"Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so ;"
So imagery is rife in our daily discourse. When a toothpaste advert shows you a army of marauding bacteria going for a set of teeth, you can say, " Personification!" Next time you hear it, you can identify it!
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