I always begin with a definition and example of imagery.

Currently, I'm using this:

Imagery - an image, in its basic sense, is something concrete that appeals to any of the five senses - sight, sound, touch, taste, smell - as well as metaphor, simile, and personification. For example, the following images might be used to describe a stroll on a summer night: Sight - a full moon in a black sky Sound - the chirp of crickets Taste - the tang of a cold glass of lemonade Touch - a warm breeze Smell - freshly mowed grass

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Next, I have the students make a five column chart and I'll have them label each column with one sense in each: Sight Sound Touch Taste Smell

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Over 20000000 DataSheet. It's Free. Multi Fast Search System. www.AllDataSheet.com 3 I tell them to close their eyes (this always scares them) and imagine the perfect Saturday morning. For me in the northwest, it involves the sight of rain outside the windows with the feel of the heat blasting, the sounds my children's cartoons, the taste of pancakes, and the smell of another brewing pot of coffee. I have the students fill in the chart for their own Saturdays, using one or two images for sense.

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After I've taken a classful of responses (they love sharing these), I'll ask them to describe the mood of a Saturday morning. Responses usually include words like: "warm," "mellow," "quiet," and "peaceful."

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Once we've wrapped this up, I ask them to close their eyes again and I'll start making an obnoxious sound like an alarm clock. Eventually, they open their eyes and give me strange looks (what else is new?) and finally, I'll tell them that it's Monday morning. They all groan and I ask for some images that accompany Monday mornings. We do this orally without filling in the chart again and I usually find that they are even more eager to respond than they are when we offer Saturday images. Once we've exhausted all responses, I'll ask for mood words again and students usually respond with words like: "cold," "horrific," "fast-paced," and "chaotic." Next thing you know, they understand imagery and mood!

Read more: How to Teach Imagery - a lesson plan | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_4771394_teach-imagery-lessonplan.html#ixzz2E570YQKl

A simple figure of speech can add a lot of dimensions to a sentence. Below, I am listing most of the commonly used figures of speech. This is by no way a complete list. If you know of others which you think should be here, send them to me and I will see that they are put up. It is not necessary that you really know the names of all of these, just what they stand for. In fact you will notice that we often use most of them, with out really thinking about it.

Simile The most commonly used figure of speech, it directly compares one object to another, using words 'as', 'as though', 'as if', 'as '.. as' and 'like' E.g. Eyes as blue as the sky and deep like the ocean Metaphor It is similar to simile but uses indirect comparison. It compares two things by saying one thing is another thing. It does not use the words like or as. E.g. He was a lion in the battle field She was a spring flower Hyperbole It is another very commonly used figure of speech, which simply translated means exaggeration. E.g. A thousand times I begged his pardon A city filled with misers and louts Tautology Tautology means the repetition of the same word more than once in a line. E.g. Handsome is as handsome does A friend in need is a friend indeed Alliteration Alliterations imply the repetition of the same sound or letter usually at the beginning of words. A very common example for alliteration which we would all recognize with would be tongue twisters. E.g. Betty bought some butter but the butter was bitter so Betty bought some better butter to make the bitter butter better. Personification Personification simply means making inanimate things behave in a very human like way. E.g. The wind whispers secrets in my ears Onomatopoeia It uses the sound of whatever it is describing. E.g. The tinkle of the bangles The jingle of the bells The rustling of the streams

Litotes This is generally used in a humorous context. It creates an impact by denying the opposite of what is true. E.g. I never said I didn't hit him The burglar didn't mind the diamonds he found Oxymoron It is a contradictory phrase E.g. Your answers are perfectly wrong It is genuinely fake Transferred Epithet It is an epithet which has been transferred from the word to which it strictly belongs to another word connected with it in thought. E.g. It was a dark day. The afternoon was horribly wet Antithesis It is the use of words with opposite meanings in the same line. E.g. The good and bad of it lies in where you look He was neither fat nor skinny Synecdoche It uses either the part of an object to describe the whole or vice versa. E.g. The face that launched a thousand ships Indian won the match by a 100 runs Ellipsis It is the omission of the common words that make a sentence grammatically correct E.g. He thus in reply Euphemism It is the substitution of an agreeable or non-offensive word or expression for one that is harsh, indelicate, or otherwise unpleasant. E.g. She lay thus in eternal undisturbed sleep Anaphora It is the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of successive clauses

E.g. Her love made her live, her love made her grieve Her beauty was her best friend, her beauty her worst enemy Apostrophe It is a diversion of discourse from the topic at hand to addressing some person or thing, either present or absent. E.g. My love for you drives me to great depths Will I live normally again? Oh God! Tell me Is my love even true Or is this what my fate drives me to do?? Paradox It is a seemingly contradictory statement at first reading, but yet on deeper perusal makes sense E.g. She lives among us, ten years after her death There are many figures of speech which I have not listed, some because I don't know them and some because I feel they aren't widely used. Figure of speech is a very powerful tool in the hands of a poet. It can be used subtly and effectively to add a whole new dimension to your words. In fact it would not a be a great exaggeration to say, a figure of speech plays a huge part in separating a prose from a poetry.

Imagery intensifies the impact of the poets words as he shows us with his words rather than just telling us what he feels. Song lyrics are full of imagery.

Figurative Language

In addition to imagery, there are six other devices that a poet uses to make the language of his poems figurative. The readers senses are heightened and he will see things the way the poet does.

The seven figurative language devices are:

Simile Metaphor Alliteration Personification Onomatopoeia Hyperbole Simile

A simile is used to compare two things using the words like and as. Examples include:

As dry as a bone As easy as shooting fish in a barrel They fought like cats and dogs Stand out like a sore thumb Metaphor

A metaphor sounds like a false statement, until you realize the similarities between the two things being compared. These would be phrases like:

Time is money Time is a thief

You are my sunshine He has a heart of stone America is a melting pot Alliteration

In alliteration, the first consonant sound is repeated in several words. A good example is wide-eyed and wondering while we wait for others to waken. Alliteration can be fun, as in tongue twisters like: Kindly kittens knitting mittens keep kazooing in the king's kitchen.

Personification

Personification is giving human characteristics to objects, animals, or ideas. This can really add to a readers enjoyment of a poem as it changes the way he looks at things. Examples are:

The sun played hide and seek with the clouds Ppportunity knocked on the door The vines wove their fingers together to form a braid Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound mimic sounds, or sound like what they mean.These add a level of reality to a poem. These can be words like: smash, wham, quack, meow, oink, whoosh, swish, zap, zing, ping, munch, gobble, and crunch.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a ridiculous exaggeration that can by funny and makes a point. Examples are: I had to walk 15 miles to school in the snow, uphill and you could have knocked me over with a feather.

In summary, imagery poems appeal to the senses as they describes living things or inanimate objects, more so than the other six categories of figurative language.

Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver I thought the earth remembered me, she took me back so tenderly, arranging her dark skirts, her pockets full of lichens and seeds. I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed, nothing between me and the white fire of the stars but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths among the branches of the perfect trees. All night I heard the small kingdoms breathing around me, the insects, and the birds who do their work in the darkness. All night I rose and fell, as if in water, grappling with a luminous doom. By morning I had vanished at least a dozen times into something better.

I think that this poem is really talking about death and what the \"afterlife\" is like. She says the earth welcomes her back, like she was there like before she was born. The earth is described as very nurturing and much like a mother (mother earth, a derp a derp). The so-called after life is seemingly very peaceful, with nothing but her thoughts and the \"kingdom\" around her. As the narrator goes along, it just gets better and better. Also, after looking at this poem again, I\'m rethinking what I thought about the narrator dying, and I\'m starting to notice it\'s more like a dream. So whatever makes sense to you!