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Idioms
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 Far From the Madding Crowd
Chapter 11
Explanation and Analysis—The Moor:
This depiction of Melchester Moor is full of visual and tactile imagery that reflects the difficulty and ambiguity of Fanny’s situation:
[....] for the first time in the season [the moor’s] irregularities were forms without features; suggestive of anything, proclaiming nothing, and without more character than that of being the limit of something else—the under surface of a firmament of snow. From this chaotic sky—full of crowding flakes the heath and moor momentarily received additional clothing, only to appear momentarily more naked thereby [...]. If anything could be darker than the sky it was the wall, if anything could be darker than the wall it was the river beneath.
Related Themes:
Chapter 28
Explanation and Analysis—The Hollow Amid the Ferns:
Bathsheba meets Troy in a hollow among several ferns. Hardy’s description of the hollow amid the ferns is rife with imagery resonant with the romantic tension of the scene:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The hill opposite Bathsheba’s dwelling extended, a mile off, into an uncultivated tract of land, dotted at this season with tall thickets of brake fern, plump and succulent from recent rapid growth, and radiant in hues of clear and untainted green.
At eight o’clock this midsummer evening, whilst the bristling ball of gold in the west still swept the tips of the ferns with its long, luxuriant rays, a soft brushing-by of garments might have been heard among them, and Bathsheba appeared in their midst, their soft, feathery arms caressing her up to her shoulders.
