A Moveable Feast

by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast: Imagery 1 key example

Definition of Imagery

Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Chapter 16: Winter in Shrums
Explanation and Analysis—Glacier Run:

In Chapter 16, Hemingway describes his young family's wintertime retreat in Austria. He uses imagery to turn the "great glacier run" into a metaphor for the future he always hoped he was building in Paris:

Finally there was the great glacier run, smooth and straight, forever straight if your legs could hold it, your ankles locked, you running so low, leaning into the speed, dropping forever and forever in the silent hiss of the crisp powder. It was better than any flying or anything else, and you built the ability to do it and to have it with the long climbs carrying the heavy rucksacks. You could not buy it nor take a ticket to the top. It was the end we worked all winter for, and all the winter built to make it possible.