Imagery

Imagery

Imagery is the name given to the elements in a poem that spark off the senses. Despite "image" being a synonym for "picture", images need not be only visual; any of the five senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) can respond to what a poet writes. Examples of non-visual imagery can be found in Ken Smith's 'In Praise of Vodka', where he describes the drink as having "the taste of air, of wind on fields, / the wind through the long wet forest", and James Berry's 'Seashell', which puts the "ocean sighs" right in a listener's ear. 

Seashell by James Berry

Shell at my ear-

come share how I hear

busy old sea in whispers.

Moans rise from ancient depths

in ocean sighs

like crowds of ghost monsters.

Waves lash and fall-

in roars and squalls

with all a mystery ahhh!

I chose this picture because the poem talks about what is represented by the sounds that you hear in a seashell.  

James Berry

James Berry's poems take you back to the noises, sights and smells of his Jamaican childhood. James was born in 1924 in a small village surrounded by fields and fruit trees. Through his writing James shares his experience of this exciting world, where he ate "young jelly-coconut" ('Childhood Tracks') and where humble hens' eggs became "a mighty nest full of stars" ('A Nest Full of Stars). As he says in one poem "Isn't it all magic?" ('Isn't My Name Magical').

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=120