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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—An Ambiguous Mark:
Woolf uses indeterminate imagery, culminating in mysterious "barrows," to describe the narrator's search to understand the mark:
In certain lights that mark on the wall seems actually to project from the wall. Nor is it entirely circular. I cannot be sure, but it seems to cast a perceptible shadow, suggesting that if I ran my finger down that strip of wall it would, at a certain point, mount and descend a small tumulus, a smooth tumulus like those barrows on the South Downs which are, they say, either tombs or camps.
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Explanation and Analysis—Constant Trees:
Compared to the existential horrors of war and human fickleness, nature is a source of comfort and a refuge for both Woolf and the narrator. In particular, tree imagery becomes a reservoir of calm for the narrator in the midst of her otherwise scattered, at times nihilistic thoughts:
Unlock with LitCharts A+For years and years [trees] grow, without paying any attention to us, in meadows, in forests, and by the side of rivers - all things one likes to think about. The cows swish their tails beneath them on hot afternoons; they paint rivers so green that when a moorhen dives one expects to see its feathers all green when it comes up again.
Related Themes:
