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Hyperbole
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
Key Examples in A White Heron
Part I
Explanation and Analysis—Sylvia at Twilight:
Near the beginning of “A White Heron,” as Sylvia pauses on her walk home with her cow, the narrator captures the nature around her using imagery:
The cow stopped long at the brook to drink, as if the pasture were not half a swamp, and Sylvia stood still and waited, letting her bare feet cool themselves in the shoal water, while the great twilight moths struck softly against her. She waded on through the brook as the cow moved away, and listened to the thrushes with a heart that beat fast with pleasure.
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Part II
Explanation and Analysis—Climbing the Tree:
When Sylvia is climbing up the old pine tree in order to locate the white heron, the narrator uses imagery to capture Sylvia’s experience, as seen in the following passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Small and silly Sylvia began with utmost bravery to mount to the top of [the tree], with tingling, eager blood coursing the channels of her whole frame, with her bare feet and fingers, that pinched and held like bird’s claws to the monstrous ladder reaching up, up, almost to the sky itself.
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Explanation and Analysis—The View from the Trees:
Once Sylvia has climbed in the top of the pine tree (the climax of the story), the narrator describes the scene using imagery and a pair of similes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Sylvia’s face was like a pale star, if one had seen it from the ground, when the last thorny bough was past, and she stood trembling and tired but wholly triumphant, high in the tree-top. Yes, there was the sea with the dawning sun making a golden dazzle over it, and toward that glorious east flew two hawks with slow-moving pinions […] Their gray feathers were as soft as moths; they seemed only a little way from the tree, and Sylvia felt as if she too could go flying away among the clouds.
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