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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
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—So Hot and Tired:
As Hugh lies dying of his self-inflicted wounds in his jail cell, Davis employs tactile imagery to bring the reader closer to the "Old Wolfe's" final moments:
He had been so hot and tired there always in the mills! The years had been so fierce and cruel! There was coming now quiet and coolness and sleep. His tense limbs relaxed, and settled in a calm languor. The blood ran fainter and slow from his heart.
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Explanation and Analysis—Billowy Silver:
As Davis describes a birdseye view of the mill town from the narrator's window, Davis employs visual imagery to illustrate how different the industrial scene on the ground is from the dramatic skyscape above it:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The fog had risen, and the town and river were steeped in its thick, gray damp; but overhead, the sun-touched smoke-clouds opened like a cleft ocean,—shifting, rolling seas of crimson mist, waves of billowy silver veined with blood-scarlet, inner depths unfathomable of glancing light.
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Explanation and Analysis—Chaffering and Swearing:
As Hugh listens to the bustling scene outside his jail cell when Deb visits him, Davis uses auditory imagery to illustrate the contrast between life on the street and life in the cell:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The clink of money as it changed hands, the busy crowd of whites and blacks shoving, pushing one another, and the chaffering and swearing at the stalls.
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Explanation and Analysis—Pits of Flame:
In this passage, which introduces where Hugh works at the mill, the narrator depicts a dramatic scene of nighttime industrial labor using the visual imagery of flames and several similes. Describing Hugh’s workplace, Davis writes:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Fire in every horrible form: pits of flame waving in the wind; liquid metal-flames writhing in tortuous streams through the sand…and through all, crowds of half-clad men, looking like revengeful ghosts in the red light, hurried, throwing masses of glittering fire. It was like a street in Hell.
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