Seminar read and analyze it. What Is Imagery? Learn About the Types of Imagery in Poetry With Examples

Olfactory imagery. In this form of poetic imagery, the poet appeals to the reader’s sense of smell by describing something the speaker of the poem inhales. It may include pleasant fragrances or off-putting odors. In his poem “Rain in Summer,” H.W. Longfellow writes:

They silently inhale
the clover-scented gale,
And the vapors that arise
From the well-watered and smoking soil
Here, Longfellow’s use of imagery in the words “clover-scented gale” and “well-watered and smoking soil” paints a clear picture in the reader’s mind about smells the speaker experiences after rainfall.

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  Kinesthetic imagery. In this form of poetic imagery, the poet appeals to the reader’s sense of motion. It may include the sensation of speeding along in a vehicle, a slow sauntering, or a sudden jolt when stopping, and it may apply to the movement of the poem’s speaker/narrator or objects around them. For example, W.B. Yeats’ 1923 poem “Leda and the Swan” begins with kinesthetic imagery:
  

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
In this retelling of the god Zeus’s rape of the girl Leda from Greek mythology, the opening lines convey violence in the movement of the bird’s “beating” wings while Leda’s “staggering” provides the reader with a sense of her disorientation at the events.

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  Organic imagery. In this form of poetic imagery, the poet communicates internal sensations such as fatigue, hunger, and thirst as well as internal emotions such as fear, love, and despair. In Robert Frost’s 1916 poem “Birches,” he makes use of organic imagery:
  

So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
In this poignant moment, Frost, who has seen bent birch trees and imagined a boy’s playful swinging has bent them, describes feelings of fatigue and aimlessness and a longing to return to the purposeful play of youth.