Imagery Poetry

This is an excerpt from Preludes, an imagery poem by T. S. Eliot.

The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o'clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet

And newspapers from vacant lots;

The showers beat

On broken blinds and chimney-pots,

And at the corner of the street

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.

And then the lighting of the lamps.

The Shark by Edwin John Pratt

His body was tubular

And tapered

And smoke-blue,

And as he passed the wharf

He turned,

And snapped at a flat-fish

That was dead and floating.

And I saw the flash of a white throat,

And a double row of white teeth,

And eyes of metallic grey,

Hard and narrow and slit.

Then out of the harbour,

With that three-cornered fin

Shearing without a bubble the water

Lithely,

Leisurely,

He swam—That strange fish,

Tubular, tapered, smoke-blue,

Part vulture, part wolf,

Part neither—for his blood was cold.

In addition to sensory details, figurative devices are also used to create a clear impression for the reader. These include...

• simile

• metaphor

• alliteration

• personification

• onomatopoeia

• hyperbole....

You can find definitions and examples of these terms on the website.

One project option for you will be to create an original piece of artwork based on your interpretation of a poem. When the artwork is completed, you will be asked to explain in writing the reasons behind the imagery you created in response to the poem. You are welcome to use "mixed media".

Write paragraphs explaining your use of materials and images in relation to the poem. Questions for you to consider in writing your paragraphs include:

• Why did you use a particular material or color?

• Why did you place objects in specific areas of your artwork?

• Why did you use certain images?

• What meaning did the poem convey to you and how did you represent that meaning in your artwork?

• Did you interpret the poem at face value or did it symbolize something more to you?

Another option would be to write a parody poem. Parody is the imitation of the style of another work, writer or genre, which relies on deliberate exaggeration to achieve comic or satirical effect. It is usually necessary to be familiar with the original in order to appreciate the parody, though some parodies have become better known than the poems they imitate.

A final option would be our familiar friend: the literary paragraph. Once you have found your imagery poem, you will analyze it for use of sensory details and figurative devices. Make sure to support what you say with examples from the text.

Due Date for this project/assignment is Tuesday, October 13th.