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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
Part 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Orgy:
As Paul leaves behind the world of the silver stage and the German soloist, retreating back to his home, Cather makes ample use of both metaphor and imagery to describe his emotional state:
The moment he turned into Cordelia Street he felt the waters close above his head. After each of these orgies of living he experienced all the physical depression which follows a debauch; the loathing of respectable beds, of common food, of a house penetrated by kitchen odors; a shuddering repulsion for the flavorless, colorless mass of everyday existence; a morbid desire for cool things and soft lights and fresh flowers.
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Explanation and Analysis—The Christmas Pantomime:
In the following excerpt, Cather connects Paul’s desires to some imagined, mythical world, using simile to describe the building the German soloist enters as a “fairy world” seen only in a “Christmas pantomime”:
Unlock with LitCharts A+There it was, what he wanted—tangibly before him, like the fairy world of a Christmas pantomime; as the rain beat in his face, Paul wondered whether he were destined always to shiver in the black night outside, looking up at it.
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Explanation and Analysis—Weather and Imagination:
In the following passage, Cather uses imagery to describe Paul's internal state in the language of his external environment. In more dramatic, figurative prose, it is common to see an author use the weather as shorthand for depicting a character's emotions. Paul is no exception to this:
Unlock with LitCharts A+He seemed to feel himself go after her up the steps, into the warm, lighted building, into an exotic, tropical world of shiny, glistening surfaces and basking ease. He reflected upon the mysterious dishes that were brought into the dining room, the green bottles in buckets of ice, as he had seen them in the supper party pictures of the Sunday World supplement. A quick gust of wind brought the rain down with sudden vehemence, and Paul was startled to find that he was still outside in the slush of the gravel driveway.
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Part 2
Explanation and Analysis—Winter Flowers:
The following passage comes after Paul exits his hotel into the harsh winter of New York City. He is surprised by the brilliancy he finds outside, despite the harsh winter. Cather employs one particular excerpt as imagery, representing Paul's relationship to the landscape around him:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Here and there on the corners were stands, with whole flower gardens blooming under glass cases, against the sides of which the snowflakes stuck and melted; violets, roses, carnations, lilies of the valley--somehow vastly more lovely and alluring that they blossomed thus unnaturally in the snow.
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