imagery creative writing examples

39 Imagery Examples (+7 Types) to Paint a Picture With Words

by Joanna Kneller

on Aug 24, 2024

If you’re looking to add some oomph to your writing, these imagery examples are just what you need.

Not sure what imagery is?

It’s an amazing literary device that tickles your readers’ senses, grabs their attention, and draws them into your creative writing.

And you can find out more about it right here in this scenic study guide!

In this post, you’ll get some great examples of imagery, and you’ll also learn:

• The difference between imagery and figurative language;
• Five additional literary devices that use figurative language;
• Seven common types of imagery (with examples);
• How imagery has been used in literature, movies, songs, and everyday speech.

But first…

What is Imagery?

Imagery is the art of creating a mental image through descriptive words. Writers use either literal or figurative language to help readers picture an image of a scene by engaging their senses and evoking emotions.

This literary device describes objects, actions, or ideas while providing readers with sensory imagery that pulls them into a story, allowing them to relate to the characters and better understand the narrator.

Literal Imagery vs. Figurative Imagery

Imagery can contain either literal or figurative language.

Literal imagery uses descriptive words that mean exactly what they say.

For example:

The grass was green, and the flowers were red.

Figurative imagery uses descriptive language that means something different than or goes beyond the literal definition of the words, often through exaggeration, comparison, or symbolism .

He has a heart of stone

It does not mean his heart is literally made of stone. Instead, it is a figurative comparison of his unkind or cruel actions to being as hard and cold as a stone.

Imagery & Figurative Language

Imagery and figurative language add depth and color to your storytelling, copywriting, or blog posts, making your writing inviting and alluring to readers.

Imagery is not automatically the same thing as figurative language. The writer of imagery has options…

They can include just literal descriptive language or figurative language or both.

Figurative language is a “tool” to be used in imagery and other literary devices, such as metaphors , onomatopoeia , personification , similes , and hyperbole , to describe something.

Here are some simple definitions and examples of these literary devices:

A metaphor compares two familiar, but unrelated, things to suggest a likeness between them.

Time is money.

Onomatopoeia

An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the action it describes.

The soda fizzed as I poured it into the glass.

Personification

Personification is when objects or animals are given human-like qualities.

Opportunity knocked at his door.

A simile compares two different things, using the words “like” or “as.”

She was as happy as a clam.

Hyperbole is an extreme exaggeration, not meant to be taken seriously.

You snore louder than a freight train !

7 Major Types of Imagery to Elevate Your Writing

Elevate your writing by making your scenes come alive, so your readers feel like they are part of your story. Using imagery whenever a vivid description is required will help readers form a mental picture of each scene.

There are seven major types of imagery used in writing.

Five of these pertain to the basic senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The remaining two pertain to physical movement and internal sensations or feelings.

1. Visual Imagery

Visual imagery appeals to our sense of sight. It describes things we see, such as colors, sizes, shapes, and patterns.

This imagery type is the most common and is used by authors as it helps them vividly describe characters and scenery in a story.

Examples of visual imagery:

As they sat on the soft, sugary sand beach waiting for the sunset, the sinking sun shimmered on the water as the blue sky transformed into various shades of purple and pink.

Veronica was dressed to impress. The scanty scarlet lace dress clung to every curve.

Misty plopped down on the comfortable couch, but it was difficult for her to relax when the room was a disaster area-toys and shoes and books and dishes were strewn about.

Notice that literal descriptive language is mainly used in these examples. However, in the last example, figurative language is used to compare the room to a disaster area.

2. Auditory Imagery

Auditory imagery engages our sense of hearing. It describes sounds that we hear, such as noise, music, and even silence.

Examples of auditory imagery:

As she walked through the wintery woods, her teeth chattered and the leaves crunched under her feet.

The pitter-patter of rain and whispering breeze had progressed into a gushing downpour and howling wind.

The eerie silence made him stop in his tracks.

Notice the sounds made by her teeth, the leaves, rain, and wind-and even the silence sounds “eerie.”

3. Olfactory Imagery

Olfactory imagery relates to our sense of smell. It describes different scents, such as fragrances and odors.

Smell has the power to link us to the past, and familiar smells can trigger our memories and emotions.

Olfactory imagery examples:

The sweet fragrance of honeysuckle always reminded Jenny of her mother’s perfume.

He woke up to the smell of burnt toast and greasy bacon, when all he wanted was coffee.

As she entered the warm house, she was welcomed by the scents of hot apple cider and cinnamon.

Notice how the honeysuckle fragrance triggers a memory for Jenny. Also, the smells of burnt toast and greasy bacon seem unpleasant to the man, but the scents of apple cider and cinnamon appear to evoke pleasant feelings for the woman.

4. Gustatory Imagery

Gustatory imagery appeals to our sense of taste and food cravings. It describes flavors, such as spiciness, sweetness, sourness, savoriness, and saltiness, and also includes the textures and sensations we experience while eating.

This imagery type works well with olfactory (smell) imagery.

Examples of gustatory imagery:

She couldn’t wait to sink her teeth into the succulent, salty steak.

My mouth nearly watered as I stared at the decadent chocolate mousse and imagined the sweet, creamy dessert rolling on my tongue.

The boy bit into the ripe peach and smiled as the sweet, soft fruit filled his mouth, and the juice ran down his chin.

Are you feeling hungry now?

Notice the descriptive words being used to describe flavors and textures.

We can also relate to the experiences of the girl sinking her teeth into the steak, and the boy having peach juice running down his chin.

5. Tactile Imagery

Tactile imagery engages our sense of touch. It describes what you can physically feel, such as temperature, movement, texture, and other sensations.

Examples of tactile imagery:

A gust of cold air blew over her, causing her body to shiver. After she pulled the fuzzy blanket up to her chin, she was warm and cozy.

His legs ached after climbing so many flights of stairs, and he could feel the flush in his face. He couldn’t wait to get out of his sticky, sweaty clothes and let the cool, soothing water wash over him in the shower.

The dog yelped after stepping on a prickly burr, and then I almost yelped when I yanked it from his paw and the prickles pierced my fingers.

Notice the feeling of experiencing different temperatures, the textures of the “fuzzy” blanket and the “prickly” burr, and how both the dog and human felt pain after touching the burr.

6. Kinesthetic Imagery

Kinesthetic imagery is unrelated to the five basic senses and instead relates to the actions and movements of people or objects. It describes physical movement, actions that lead to touch, and temperature.

This type of imagery can be similar to tactile (touch) imagery.

Examples of kinesthetic imagery:

He rummaged through each drawer, hurling items to the floor until he found the mysterious bracelet.

She raked her fingers through her hair in an attempt to smooth out the knots.

He enjoyed watching the palm trees swaying in the wind as rain drizzled from the sky.

Notice the physical movements of people rummaging, hurling , and raking. The trees and rain also show their movement.

7. Organic Imagery

Organic imagery is also unrelated to the five basic senses and instead appeals to internal sensations, feelings, and emotions. It describes personal experiences, such as fatigue, hunger, thirst, fear, love, loneliness, despair, elation, and nostalgia.

Organic imagery is subjective, which contributes to it being a more difficult and complex form of mental imagery since the writer’s goal is to create a specific emotion or feeling within the reader.

Examples of organic imagery:

Her eyes lit up the moment she saw him, and she ran into his arms.

He lowered his head and covered his face with his hands. He couldn’t bear for her to see what her words had done to him.

She clenched her fists and then threw her hands in the air as he continued to yell at her.

Here we can feel emotions of happiness, shame, sadness, anger, and frustration.

More Imagery Examples

Examples of imagery can be found in all kinds of writing, such as fiction and nonfiction , novels , stories, whitepapers, poetry , and plays.

Imagery is also found in pop culture, movies, songs, and everyday speech.

Below are examples of imagery taken from excerpts of two novels and two poems as well as examples from a movie, two songs, and various sayings.

Examples of Imagery in Literature

Visual imagery example.

The Hobbit , JRR Tolkien:

“The far bank was steep and slippery. When they got to the top of it, leading their ponies, they saw that the great mountains had marched down very near to them. Already they seemed only a day’s easy journey from the feet of the nearest. Dark and drear it looked, though there were patches of sunlight on its brown sides, and behind its shoulders, the tips of snow-peaks gleamed.”

In this visual imagery example, Tolkein’s alluring, powerful words describing the mountain allow the reader to experience the same feelings of awe, nervousness, and anticipation as Bilbo, Gandalf, and the Dwarves.

Auditory Imagery Example

Birches , Robert Frost:

“…Often you must have seen them Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning After a rain. They click upon themselves As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.”

Here the reader can hear the clicks and cracks of the birches on a cold winter morning.

Tactile Imagery Example

Jane Eyre , Charlotte Brontë:

“I heard the rain still beating continuously on the staircase window, and the wind howling in the grove behind the hall; I grew by degrees cold as a stone, and then my courage sank. My habitual mood of humiliation, self-doubt, forlorn depression, fell damp on the embers of my decaying ire.”

The figurative descriptions of temperature (“cold as a stone”) and dampness allow the reader to feel Jane’s discomfort and depression.

Kinesthetic Imagery Example

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (aka “Daffodils”) , William Wordsworth:

In this poem, he speaks of golden daffodils that are:

“Fluttering and dancing in the breeze” and “Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.”

The way these daffodils are moving evokes a sense of happiness or glee to the reader.

Organic Imagery Example

“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…”

This excerpt allows the reader to experience the writer’s feelings of nostalgia.

Examples of Imagery in Movies, Songs, & Everyday Speech

101 dalmations.

In the animated movie, 101 Dalmatians , one of the puppies uses figurative imagery (hyperbole) by exaggerating when it says:

“I’m so hungry, I could eat a whole elephant.”

What a Wonderful World , Louis Armstrong

Successful imagery not only paints a pretty picture, but also helps us feel and connect with a scene emotionally.

“I see trees of green Red roses too I see them bloom For me and you And I think to myself What a wonderful world I see skies of blue And clouds of white The bright blessed day…”

Notice how Louis Armstrong’s lyrics embrace poetic imagery to illustrate a compelling scene.

But pay attention to how the lyrics make you feel.

Do you feel a soothing sense of love and happiness? Or maybe something deeper?

Firework , Katy Perry

“Do you ever feel like a plastic bag Drifting through the wind Wanting to start again? Do you ever feel, feel so paper-thin Like a house of cards One blow from caving in? …Baby, you’re a firework Come on, let your colors burst…”

This song contains a lot of figurative language (similes and metaphors) by comparing or associating human emotions to objects and events.

Everyday Speech

People often use imagery to communicate their feelings, thoughts, and ideas:

She’s as sweet as pie.

It was like a dagger to the heart!

My head is pounding like a drum.

These examples use figurative language to make comparisons that help the listener better understand what the speaker is expressing.

Ready to Write Your Own Great Imagery Examples?

Phew! Your head must be spinning from all these writing tips.

(Want even more? Check out 18 Writing Tips That’ll Actually Make You a Better Writer )

But now you know how to use vivid imagery to upgrade your creative writing and get the results you want.

The best way to become a master at writing different types of imagery is to practice.

Still not sure where to start?

• Review these examples as often as needed;
• Consider what kind of vivid description you need to write;
• Decide which senses you’d like to appeal to;
• Start writing.

And before you know it, you’ll be sharp as a tack!

Literary Devices , Writing

This post was originally published on December 8, 2021. It's been updated for clarity and comprehensiveness.

Joanna Kneller

A freelance writer, editor, and Smart Blogger Certified Content Marketer, Joanna Kneller's eyes light up whenever someone mentions imagery.

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66 Imagery Examples + 8 Types to Ignite Your Imagination

• Updated: 03/04/24
• Comments: 0

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Imagery examples can be a powerful tool of communication used in literature, TV, art, music, and other mediums.

It’s used in writing and storytelling to help readers and listeners connect with characters or events on a more personal level.

There are many different types of imagery that we will cover in this article, including examples of imagery for each type.

Different types of imagery come together to create an immersive experience that helps draw people into stories by creating vivid mental pictures in their minds while they read (or listen).

Imagery can also be used in everyday speech and writing to help communicate ideas more effectively and make them easier to remember through the use of memorable visuals.

Using imagery to communicate concepts clearly and effectively makes it easier for readers to understand the point being made without getting lost in the words or distracted.

In this article, we’re going to cover the different types of imagery, the differences between literal and figurative descriptive language, and provide imagery examples every step of the way!

What is Imagery?

Imagery is a literary device that uses vivid descriptions to create pictures and evoke feelings through the use of descriptive language. It’s used to enhance the reader’s experience through powerful and impactful descriptions.

Imagery evokes emotion, helps create a deeper connection to characters and plots, as well as creates an atmosphere that draws readers in and enhances their understanding.

Descriptive imagery allows you to engage with the story by using not only the author’s words but also your own imagination.

The use of imagery can create a certain mood or tone that can further emphasize certain themes in literature.

For example, if an author wants to emphasize loss in a story, they might use imagery of death or desolation that will evoke feelings of sadness and pain in their writing.

Imagery is also important in painting, film, music, and other forms of art where visual elements are key components.

In painting, imagery is important in conveying meaning through color, shape, and other techniques such as perspective and lighting.

When used properly, imagery can tell stories without relying on words or dialogue.

In music, imagery can be used is to create soundscapes—vivid sonic landscapes that evoke different emotional responses from listeners based on what instruments are chosen.

Imagery in Literal and Figurative Language

Imagery can be used in both literal and figurative language, with each having its own distinct purpose and effect.

Literal language is the use of words to mean exactly what they say, while figurative language is the use of words to create a vivid mental image or emotion.

With literal language, you convey your message in a pretty straightforward manner, providing specific details that describe a particular object or situation.

An example of literal imagery would be: “The bark on the tree was rough and brown”.

Literal imagery in writing gives readers an exact picture of what a tree looks like without any abstract interpretation.

Unlike literal language which simply states what something is, figurative imagery paints a picture or expresses something using literary devices such as metaphors, similies, and other comparisons.

For example, you could say that compare someone’s strength to “an army of giants” rather than stating how strong they are in literal terms.

This helps readers connect with characters on an emotional level by creating powerful visual images in their minds.

Types of Figurative Language That Use Imagery

Figurative language is an important tool for authors, artists, and speakers to help their audience feel emotions and create mental pictures from their messages, music, and other creations.

Figurative language can be categorized into 8 main types of literary devices.

1. Metaphors

Metaphors are comparisons made between two unrelated objects or ideas in order to create a deeper understanding of one.

For example, someone might describe their anger as “a roaring fire” or “a storm brewing inside.”

This type of organic imagery in writing helps readers understand the character’s emotional state more deeply and creates a strong mental image that they can relate to.

2. Similies

Similes are similar to metaphors in that they make a comparison between two things but with the added difference of using words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’.

For example, someone might describe their excitement “like a kid on Christmas morning” or “as giddy as a schoolgirl.”

Similes are effective at creating vivid imagery because they compare tangible objects with abstract emotions, making them easier to visualize.

3. Pesonification

Personification is when you give human attributes or characteristics to non-human objects.

An example of olfactory imagery to demonstrate this would be “the wind was singing its mournful song” instead of simply describing it as blowing or breezy.

Personification allows readers to connect with characters on a deeper level by giving them life-like qualities.

4. Hyperbole

A hyperbole is a literary device that uses exaggeration to emphasize a point and create an impact.

For example, “the sun was hot enough to fry an egg” is a hyperbole that helps create a vivid mental image of a scorching hot day.

Hyperboles can be used with imagery to evoke emotions, create mental pictures, or highlight important qualities or characteristics.

5. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds in a phrase or sentence.

For example, “the bubble burst in brilliant blues and greens” is an example of alliteration that creates a pleasing rhythm while also providing a vivid mental image.

It is often used in writing to create a poetic rhythm and make marketing words more memorable, which is an example alliteration in itself!

6. Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is the use of words whose sounds imitate or suggest their meaning.

These words are used to evoke a certain emotion or create a vivid mental image.

For example, “the bee buzzed” evokes a strong mental image of the sound and movement of a bee.

It can be used to create imagery in writing by helping readers hear in their minds what is being described.

Idioms are phrases or expressions that have a figurative meaning different from the literal meanings of their individual words.

For example, “it was raining cats and dogs” is an idiom that helps you visualize heavy rainfall.

They can evoke strong imagery by comparing two unrelated things in a creative way.

8. Symbolism

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas or concepts. For example, a dove can be used to symbolize peace, hope, and freedom.

In literature, symbolism can be used to create powerful imagery that conveys meaning beyond its literal definition.

Types of Imagery + Examples of Imagery

Perhaps one of the best ways to understand how imagery is used is by diving into the different types of imagery and how they impact our senses.

Imagery appeals to the reader’s senses, helping to create vivid mental images in the reader’s mind.

Imagery can be divided into 7 main types: visual imagery, auditory imagery, olfactory imagery, gustatory imagery, tactile imagery, kinesthetic imagery, and mental imagery.

1. Visual Imagery (Sight)

Visual imagery involves descriptions of sight. Writers often use visual metaphors and similes to create an image using descriptive language.

They might describe a person as “a shining star” or a room as “ominous and dark.”

Visual images can also include personification such as describing the wind as having “fingers that brushed against her face like icy talons.”

These descriptions help create a more immersive and meaningful experience when receiving the message (or reading the story).

Examples of Visual Imagery

• The sun was a giant orange orb in the sky.
• The snowflakes glittered like diamonds.
• The trees swayed in the wind, their leaves resembling green flames.
• She had hair as golden as the sunrise.
• The snow covered the ground like a blanket of white velvet.

2. Auditory Imagery (Sound)

As you might guess, auditory imagery involves descriptions of sound.

You could describe a character’s voice as soft or husky or describe birds chirping in the morning sky.

By recreating sounds in words, writers help the reader feel closer to their characters and experience whatever setting they are in more realistically.

Examples of Auditory Imagery

• The wind whistled through the trees.
• The waves crashed against the shore like thunderous drums.
• The sound of laughter echoed off the walls of the room.
• She heard a distant roar on the horizon.
• The clock ticked like a drumbeat in her mind.

3. Olfactory Imagery (Smell)

Olfactory imagery involves descriptions relating to the sense of smell.

An olfactory metaphor can be used to describe someone’s perfume as being like “sweet honeycomb” or evoking a memory with a certain aroma such as “freshly-baked cookies wafting through the air” that triggers nostalgia for one’s childhood home.

Olfactory images can also be used to set the atmosphere by including descriptions of unpleasant smells such as sewage or burning rubber from car tires skidding on asphalt.

Examples of Olfactory Imagery

• She smelled something sweet and familiar, like freshly baked bread.
• The smell of fresh rain on asphalt brought back fond memories for him.
• The salty sea air blew in from the open window.
• The stench of rotting garbage was overwhelming in the alleyway at nightfall.
• She caught a faint, musky aroma coming from his cologne as he passed by her table.

4. Gustatory Imagery (Taste)

Gustatory imagery involves descriptions relating to the sense of taste.

Connecting with the reader’s sense of taste often involves similes or other literary devices such as describing food as being “as sweet as nectar” or comparing one thing to another such as calling someone’s personality “tart.”

Gustatory images help readers get an idea about how things taste without having to actually try them.

Examples of Gustatory Imagery

• His kiss was sweet as honey.
• Her words were as bitter as lemon juice.
• The soup tasted like a warm hug in a bowl.
• She savored the steak, tender and juicy like velvet on her tongue.
• The cake was so rich it felt almost sinful to eat it.

5. Tactile Imagery (Touch)

Tactile imagery involves descriptions relating to the sense of touch and texture.

This connection to the sense of touch allows readers to imagine what something feels like when touched without actually touching it themselves.

You can use tactile imagery to describe fur being soft and luxurious, water feeling cold and refreshing on the skin during a hot day, or rocks being rough and jagged underfoot while hiking up a mountainside.

Tactile imagery allows readers to form their own impressions about the sense of touch without physically touching it.

Examples of Tactile Imagery

• The grass tickled her feet like soft velvet.
• Her skin felt cold and clammy from fear.
• His fingertips were rough against her cheek as he wiped away a tear.
• She shivered in the icy rain, feeling droplets of ice on her skin like tiny needles pricking her flesh.
• He ran his hands over the smooth surface of the marble table top until it felt almost slick under his touch.

6. Kinesthetic Imagery (Movement)

Kinesthetic imagery is a type of sensory imagery that involves descriptions of movement and physical sensations.

It can be used to capture the feeling of a character’s movements, such as running or leaping through the air.

Kinesthetic imagery can also be used to describe how a person feels when they are in motion or how certain objects feel when touched.

Examples of Kinesthetic Imagery

• She felt her heart racing as she ran across the field.
• He jumped through the air, feeling like he was flying.
• Her hands trembled with anticipation when she touched his arm for the first time in months.
• He felt waves of energy radiating from her body as they danced together in rhythm to the music.
• She experienced a rush of adrenaline shooting through her veins when she saw how close they were to winning their basketball match.

7. Organic Imagery (Mental)

Organic imagery is a type of sensory imagery that involves descriptions of mental and emotional states.

It is used to capture the feelings, impressions, or reactions experienced by a character in a story.

This can be done through verbal and non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, and dialogue.

Organic imagery is often used in writing to help the reader understand a character’s inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

Examples of Organic Imagery

• She felt a wave of relief wash over her as the weight of the situation finally lifted.
• His fear was palpable as he stepped into the unknown.
• Her eyes burned with anger and hatred when she saw what he had done.
• He felt a sudden surge of joy when he saw his family after being away for so long.
• She felt an overwhelming sense of dread when she heard the news.

Examples of Imagery in Literature

Here are some examples of poetic imagery and imagery in literature.

William Shakespeare

One of the most famous examples of imagery in literature can be found in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet , where he uses powerful imagery to convey the intense emotions between the two protagonists.

He talks of “love being a smoke made with the fume of sighs,” which evokes an image of love as something intangible and beautiful.

He also writes about “lightning being held within love’s soft jail,” which creates an image of love as a prison, showing how it can trap people against their will.

Charles Dickens

In A Christmas Carol, Dickens uses imagery to describe Bob Cratchit’s family home on Christmas Eve:

“The fireplace was so clean that not even a coal was on the hearth; while the bright fire crackled away in cheerful comfort.”

This description creates an image of warmth and joy in a humble home at Christmas time, showing how Dickens powerfully captured the essence of this special holiday period.

The works of renowned poets such as John Keats are full of captivating imagery.

An example of kinesthetic imagery from Ode to a Nightingale is when Keats writes of being “transported beyond the sea of care,” which creates an image of a world where all worries and troubles can be forgotten.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, paints a vivid picture of the beauty of nature under the moonlight and snowfall.

He describes the peaceful silence that surrounds him as he stands alone near the woods using olfactory imagery:

“The only other sound’s the sweep / Of easy wind and downy flake.”

Ernest Hemingway

In Ernest Hemingway’s novel, The Sun Also Rises, imagery is used to portray the sense of disillusionment and aimlessness experienced by the characters. He writes:

“The streets were white in the moonlight. The rain had stopped and it was cold. Everything looked dead as if the life had gone out of it.”

This description using mostly visual imagery creates an image of a cold, lifeless world that reflects the inner states of his characters.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, he uses powerful imagery to convey the atmosphere and mood of small-town Alabama during the 1930s.

She describes how the streets were “hot and breathless” on summer days (tactile imagery) and how the “shadow of a cloud passing across a moonlit night” (visual imagery) created an eerie atmosphere.

She also talks about how “the knotholes in the fence were like mysterious dark eyes staring at the children.”

These descriptions create powerful images that connect with the senses to help readers visualize and experience the setting of this classic novel.

FAQs About Imagery

Imagery examples in literature encompass the use of descriptive language to evoke sensory experiences and paint vivid pictures for the reader. Five notable examples of imagery include:

• Visual Imagery : Describing what one sees, often creating a vivid picture. Example: “The sky was a clear azure, dotted with fluffy, white clouds.”
• Auditory Imagery : Pertaining to sounds, helping readers hear what is being described. Example: “The leaves rustled in the wind, whispering secrets as we passed.”
• Tactile Imagery : Involves the sense of touch, describing textures and sensations. Example: “The sand was hot and coarse under her feet, like walking on tiny coals.”
• Olfactory Imagery : Relates to smells, enabling readers to imagine scents described. Example: “The aroma of freshly baked bread wafted through the air, warming the soul.”
• Gustatory Imagery : Focuses on taste, describing flavors in detail. Example: “The chocolate melted on her tongue, a rich mix of sweet and bitter, like an unspoken promise of joy.”

A good imagery sentence vividly invokes one or more of the five senses (sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste) to paint a detailed picture in the reader’s mind. Here is an example: “The sunset painted the sky in hues of fiery orange and soothing purple, while the gentle breeze carried the calming scent of sea salt and blooming jasmine, creating a serene atmosphere that soothed the soul.”

Visual imagery is the most common type of imagery used in literature. It pertains to the use of descriptive language that appeals to the reader’s sense of sight, enabling them to visualize characters, settings, and events in vivid detail.

Authors often rely on visual imagery to create compelling and immersive narratives that draw readers into the world of the story, making it easier for them to connect with the text on a deeper level.

Through the use of colorful and detailed descriptions, writers can paint a picture in the reader’s mind, helping to convey emotions, set the tone, and enhance the overall reading experience.

Imagery in poetry utilizes descriptive language to appeal to the readers’ senses, painting vivid pictures in their minds and evoking strong emotional responses. Some examples of imagery in poems include:

• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost : The imagery of two diverging roads in a yellow wood vividly depicts the choices and paths in life, symbolizing decision-making and its impacts.
• “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth : Wordsworth’s portrayal of a crowd of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze uses visual imagery to describe the beauty and joy of nature.
• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot : The line The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes employs visual and tactile imagery to convey the setting’s mood and atmosphere.
• “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats : Keats uses olfactory and visual imagery to transport the reader to a place where men sit and hear each other groan; Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs, evoking a sense of longing and reflection.
• “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou : Angelou’s imagery of I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, employs metaphors and visual imagery to convey strength, resilience, and the vastness of her spirit.

These examples demonstrate the power of imagery in poetry to evoke vivid scenes, emotions, and sensory experiences, drawing readers deeper into the poem’s essence.

Imagery in writing refers to the technique authors use to create vivid descriptions that appeal to the readers’ senses. It involves using detailed and descriptive language to paint pictures in the reader’s mind, making the scenes, characters, or emotions being described more vivid and tangible.

This literary device can involve any of the five senses, including sight (visual), sound (auditory), touch (tactile), smell (olfactory), and taste (gustatory) imagery. Imagery enriches the reading experience by making the narrative more immersive and engaging, allowing readers to feel as though they are part of the story’s world.

Feel imagery, also known as tactile imagery, is a literary device that describes what characters in a story feel with their sense of touch. This type of imagery can include physical sensations such as temperature, textures, pain, or other bodily sensations, enabling readers to experience the same tactile sensations as the characters. Examples of feel imagery include:

• “The cold wind bit into her skin, feeling like thousands of tiny needles piercing her at once.” This sentence evokes the sensation of harsh cold and pain.
• “His hands were rough and calloused, like the bark of an old tree.” Here, the texture of the character’s hands is compared to tree bark, emphasizing roughness.
• “She walked barefoot across the dewy grass, feeling the cool wetness soothe her aching feet.” This example conveys the refreshing sensation of wet grass against skin.
• “Lying in the sun, the warm sand hugged his body, offering a soft, comforting warmth.” The warmth and texture of the sand are highlighted, creating a comforting feeling.
• “The silk dress slid over her skin like a whisper, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake.” This sentence uses tactile imagery to describe the sensation of silk as light and stimulating.

Feel imagery enriches the narrative by allowing readers to vividly imagine the physical sensations experienced by characters, thus deepening their engagement with the text.

Summary of Imagery Examples

Imagery is an important tool for expressing thoughts and feelings in a creative way and helping your audience connect with writing through the senses.

Whether it’s through literature, art, music, or film—the ability to create a strong image using description can be incredibly powerful and impactful when done correctly.

Imagery is an important tool for writers and artists alike because it helps create vivid mental pictures and evokes powerful emotions from readers that can further emphasize certain themes within literature or art pieces.

Using different types of figurative imagery such as similes, hyperboles, and other literary devices makes it easier for readers to understand concepts without getting lost in technical jargon or abstract concepts.

This allows them to connect with characters on deeper levels and experience whatever emotions are happening within the story in full force all at once!

Other Popular Literary Devices

If you’re looking to improve your writing , you can explore these other literary devices:

• Hyperbole Examples
• Alliteration Examples
• Sensory Language Examples
• Tone Examples
• What is a Personal Narrative?

A How-to blog for Writers

300+ Sensory Imagery Examples to Master Creative Writing

As writers, we all struggle the most with bringing out how a character sees, perceives, smells, or feels. New writers often lag due to too much telling and too little showing. The rich imagery, the true essence, and a three-dimensional physical presence of everything around a character are what we find ourselves most entwined in.

‘Show, don’t tell’ isn’t just a phrase to embellish your writing. It’s a way for readers to connect with your characters and the story. It’s a way for the readers to be around them and in the midst of the story. It’s a way for the readers to live the story your characters are living and you lived as the author of it.

Now, we often find ourselves in the dilemma of how to show more and tell less, or at least maintain a balance between the two. Each writer writes to improve and weave the stories for the world to get lost into and come out as if it lived them.

I have prepared a list of more than 300 example sentences that are going to come handy when you find yourselves struggling with how to write about someone and something.

Before I begin, understand that there are different types of imagery in literature.

Types of Sensory imagery in literature:

• Kinesthetic
• Organic 

1. Visual Imagery in Literature

The visual imagery appeals to our sense of sight. The author uses similes, metaphor, and personification in the descriptions to narrate what he wants his readers to see. 

Visual Imagery Literary Examples:

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills , When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils ; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze . I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, William Wordsworth’s (1804)

Learn More about Visual Imagery:

Get Free Access to Visual Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

2. Auditory Imagery in Literature

The auditory imagery appeals to our sense of sound. It may include pleasant and unpleasant descriptions of sounds. Some authors also use words that imitate sounds to create the auditory experience for readers. 

Auditory Imagery Examples:

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue; Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn Among the river sallows, borne aloft Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft; And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. To Autumn, John Keats (1820)

Learn More about Auditory Imagery:

Get Free Access to 30+ Auditory Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

3. Olfactory Imagery in Literature

The olfactory imagery appeals to our sense of smell by describing something the narrator or protagonist inhales. It may include off-putting odours, pleasant fragrances, and other familiar scents. 

Olfactory Imagery Literary Examples

They silently inhale the clover-scented gale, And the vapors that arise From the well-watered and smoking soil Rain in Summer, H.W. Longfellow

Learn More about Olfactory Imagery:

Get Free Access to 50+ Olfactory Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

4. Gustatory Imagery in Literature

The Gustatory imagery appeals to our sense of taste by describing something the narrator or protagonist tastes. It’s most effective when the author describes a taste a reader might have experienced before so they can recall it from their memory. 

Gustatory Imagery Literary Examples

O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken? How can you be alive you growths of spring? How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain? Are they not continually putting distemper’d corpses within you? Is not every continent work’d over and over with sour dead? Where have you disposed of their carcasses? Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations? Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat? I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv’d, I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through the sod and turn it up underneath, I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat. This Compost, Walt Whitman (1856)

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Get Free Access to 8 0+ Gustatory Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

5. Tactile Imagery in Literature

The tactile imagery appeals to our sense of touch by describing something the protagonist feels on their body. It may include the feel of different physical sensations, temperatures, and textures. 

Tactile Imagery Literary Examples:

When glided in Porphyria; straight She shut the cold out and the storm, And kneeled and made the cheerless grate Blaze up, and all the cottage warm Porphyria’s Lover, Robert Browning (1836)

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Get Free Access to 10 0+ Tactile Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

6. Kinesthetic Imagery in Literature

Kinesthesia is used as a poetic device that gives a feeling of natural, or physical bodily movement or action (like breathing, heartbeat, and a pulse).

Kinesthetic imagery Literary Examples

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. Leda and the Swan, W.B. Yeats (1923)

Learn More about Kinesthetic Imagery:

Get Free Access to 50+ Kinesthetic Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

7. Organic Imagery in Literature

Organic imagery pertains to personal experiences of a character’s body, including emotion and the senses of hunger, thirst, fatigue, and pain.

Organic is essentially the hardest of all the types of imagery. Depicting the feelings through the actions is what Organic imagery deals with. Writers often feel daunted by how to project emotions on the page to the reader. Don’t Worry, I have got the Samples to help you with. I am going to go feeling by feeling (the important ones) and show you how you can show your readers what your character feels:

Organic imagery Literary Examples:

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 Birches, Robert Frost’s (1916)

Learn More about Organic Imagery:

Get Free Access to 50+ Organic Imagery Examples & Descriptions to Inspire Creative Writing

Winding Up:

I understand there is also a thing called ‘too much showing’. And to maintain a balance between too much showing and too much telling, we, the writers, need to know the scenes where showing is required and how much we should show. The above-given examples are completely at your disposal. Do make their use and your writing impressive!

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Definition of Imagery

Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.

Common Examples of Imagery in Everyday Speech

Types of poetic imagery, famous examples of imagery in shakespearean works, writing imagery, difference between literal imagery and figurative imagery.

There is a slight difference in literal and figurative imagery. Literal imagery, as the name applies, is near in meanings and almost the same thing or exactly what the description says. For example, color like the red rose implies the same thing. However, in figurative imagery, a thing is often not what it implies. There is often the use of hyperbole , simile , or metaphors that construct an image that could be different from the actual thing or person. For example, his cries moved the sky is not an example of literal imagery but of figurative imagery as the skies do not move with cries.

Tips to Analyze Imagery

Use of imagery in sentences, examples of imagery in literature.

Though imagery is often associated with poetry, it is an effective literary device in all forms of writing. Writers utilize imagery as a means of communicating their thoughts and perceptions on a deeper and more memorable level with readers. Imagery helps a reader formulate a visual picture and sensory impression of what the writer is describing as well as the emotions attached to the description. In addition, imagery is a means of showcasing a writer’s mastery of artistic and figurative language, which also enhances the meaning and enjoyment of a literary work for a reader.

Example 1:  Goblin Market (Christina Rossetti)

Early in the morning When the first cock crow’d his warning, Neat like bees, as sweet and busy, Laura rose with Lizzie: Fetch’d in honey, milk’d the cows, Air’d and set to rights the house, Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat, Cakes for dainty mouths to eat, Next churn’d butter, whipp’d up cream, Fed their poultry, sat and sew’d; Talk’d as modest maidens should: Lizzie with an open heart, Laura in an absent dream, One content, one sick in part; One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight, One longing for the night.

In this passage of her poem , Rossetti uses all forms of poetic imagery to appeal to the reader’s physical senses as well as their experience of motion and internal emotions. The reader can visualize the actions taking place in the poem along with a sense of orderly movement paired with disordered emotion. As the sisters Lizzie and Laura go about their maidenly and pastoral tasks, the poet’s description of their divergent mindsets and feelings creates an imagery of the tension between darkness and light, innocence and temptation. These contrasting images evoke unsettled and contradictory feelings for the reader, undermining the appearance of the sisters’ idyllic lives with a sense of foreboding.

Example 2:  The Yellow Wallpaper  (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

The color is repellant, almost revolting; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. It is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long.

Example 3:  The Red Wheelbarrow  (William Carlos Williams)

so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

Synonyms of Imagery

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• 9 Imagery Examples: Bring Your Writing to Life with Imagery

Erin Duchesne

9 imagery examples for writers

Paint a vivid scene, play to the senses, visual imagery (sight), auditory imagery (sound), olfactory imagery (smell), tactile imagery (touch), gustatory imagery (taste), metaphors and similes, metaphor examples, simile examples, evoke emotions, atmosphere, mood, and tone, use personification, create memorable characters, inner thoughts, personality traits.

Imagery is figurative language that activates the reader’s imagination to create a clear mental picture, convey tone, and elicit emotion. You can find imagery examples everywhere. From centuries-old Charles Dickens novels and Shakespearian plays to modern-day blogs and advertisements, imagery remains one of the most commonly used writing techniques. 

In this article, we will explore examples of imagery in film and literature, practical tips, and techniques to help you bring your writing to life. 

For any writer, imagery is an important tool to pull out of your box of tricks to elevate your work. Here are nine imagery examples to get you started.

Creating scenery in the readers’ mind is an essential aspect of writing. When readers can clearly picture the scene in their mind, they are much more likely to remember the story and take away the message whether that be a theme or a call to action. 

To boost your scene descriptions, try incorporating more adjectives, or as I like to call them “juicy words.”

Instead of saying, “The sun was setting” you might say, “The coral sky was ablaze as the golden sun dipped below the horizon, casting long, smokey shadows of jagged mountains across the tranquil valley.”

Another way to get your words to jump off the page is to engage the five senses. Using sensory language such as visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and gustatory imagery adds new layers that together helps to create an immersive experience for the reader. 

Her long golden hair was draped over her shoulder and tied with a black velvet ribbon. 

The light spring rain fell in a melodic rhythm on the flimsy tin roof of the dilapidated chicken coop.

Entering the bakery, my senses are bombarded with swirling scents of freshly baked bread, vanilla icing, and fruity pastries. 

I felt alive, squishing soft warm sand between my wet toes as I ran up the beach.

Bitter dark chocolate with bursts of crunchy sea salt and silky caramel. 

Metaphors and similes can be used to make both literal and figurative comparisons memorabe. A simile makes a comparison using “like” or “as,” whereas a metaphor makes a direct comparison between unrelated things without “like” or “as.”

• Her presence is a ray of sunshine
• He has a heart of gold
• His anger is a raging fire
• I have found her, she’s an angel
• Her room was so messy it smelled like something had died in there
• He ran as fast as a cheetah
• My heart beat like a drum
• The dancer leapt like a gazelle, as light as a feather

A good analogy can help a reader visualize and understand an abstract idea. Similar to metaphors and similes, analogies allow us to explain a difficult concept by comparing it to something familiar and simpler. 

For example,

• The famous Forrest Gump quote “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get” is a commentary on the unpredictability of life (this is also an example of simile)
• In The Wizard of Oz , Dorothy’s journey to the Emerald City is an analogy for self-discovery 
• The Phantom’s mask in The Phantom of the Opera is an analogous symbol for the metaphorical masks that people wear to hide their true selves 
• The chaos of a sinking ship in The Titanic is an analogy to society’s class system, demonstrating how everyone is equal in the face of disaster 

Symbolism or symbolic imagery can communicate powerful messages and themes in subtle but impactful ways.

Often what hallmarks a piece as a classic is its deep and complex symbolism. There are many common symbols you can use as recurring motifs to enrich your writing, such as owls (intellect/wisdom), doves (peace), roses or hearts (love/romance), and sunflowers (happiness). 

Here are a few more examples.

• The raven in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven represents many things including loss, bad omen, prophecy, and insight 
• The green light in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald symbolizes Gatsby’s unwavering love for Daisy
• The Ferris wheel in Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt represents the passage of time happening around the Tucks while they remain stagnant at the center

Good examples of imagery both bring out the emotions of the characters and of the reader. Organic imagery is when a writer describes a character’s mental or emotional state.

For example, “her heart fluttered as her cheeks blushed a vibrant shade of pink” or, “he fell to his knees from the overwhelming pang of grief realizing he would never see her again.”

An in-depth description of an emotional event or character’s mindset can help the reader relate to those feelings and put themselves in the story, eliciting an emotional reaction. 

Imagery plays a pivotal role in setting the atmosphere, mood, and tone of a piece of writing.

An author can emphasize friendship by using imagery of togetherness to evoke feelings of joy and belonging, bringing a light, happy tone to the story.

A piece can take on a negative tone of pain and sadness with imagery of isolation and despair to emphasize loss. 

Examples of stories with a dark tone:

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
• The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Examples of stories with a feel-good, light tone:

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Personification is a great example of how imagery can breathe life into your writing. Giving human characteristics to an object, animal, or even phenomena helps authors add personality and depth to their descriptions.

Personification is a technique that helps readers connect with a piece where it makes the author’s words more engaging, relatable, and memorable. 

For example:

• Opportunity came knocking on his door
• The wind whispered its secrets across the valley
• The blooming flowers woke up to say good morning
• The car gave a protesting groan asking to be taken back to the garage
• If these walls could talk they would have a lot to say

Authors who use imagery well have the remarkable ability to bring their characters to life. With vivid descriptions of their character’s appearance, mannerisms, inner thoughts, and personality traits, writers can make readers see themselves or people they know in the characters. 

Instead of “He’s a nice-looking man,” try, “His piercing blue eyes sparkled like sapphires against the backdrop of his flawless olive skin.”

Instead of “She was nervous,” try, “She compulsively tapped her fingers on the desk, bit her lip, and darted her eyes back and forth.”

Instead of “He was sad,” try, “A dark cloud hung over his head and he felt an immovable weight settle on his chest.”

Instead of “She was kind,” try, “Her warm smile and laughter always felt like the clouds had parted to let the sun shine through.”

Writers are artists who paint mental images in the minds of readers using their words. Choosing those words wisely makes all the difference in making characters, settings, and ideas memorable and relatable to audiences.

From metaphors to personification to setting the mood, imagery examples can be found woven throughout all types of writing. So whether you are a copywriter, creative writer, or blogger looking for ways to elevate your craft, play around with imagery and see your words come alive.

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25 Great Creative Writing Exercises To Awaken The Senses

• January 23, 2023
• Craft , Inspiration

I’ve written about the importance of sensory imagery in writing before, specifically for developing characters, in my blog: Use The Five Senses and Bring Your Characters to Life.  

But it’s not just for developing your characters; sensory imagery is needed everywhere if you want your readers to engage with your story. 

What is sensory imagery?

When we tell a story, we create a world in the reader’s mind, and by using specific, definite, and concrete details, we enable the reader to enter this new world. 

A detail is  definite and concrete when it appeals to the senses. It should be seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched.  

Whether you are writing non-fiction, fiction, poetry, or plays, getting in touch with your senses, and using imagery that relates to them, will serve you well. 

Experience using sensory imagery.

This post aims to give you the experience of engaging with each sense and letting it take you somewhere unexpected. It’s all very well to understand the concept of using the senses and even be convinced that it’s important to include them in your writing. Still, until you’ve taken the time—10 minutes is all you need— to experience the nuances of each sense, you might not fully understand why using sensory imagery in your writing is essential and how it works. 

How to start: Choose a writing prompt and write it  at the top of your page.    Set your timer for 10 minutes. Read the prompt and begin writing immediately, without thinking—follow the first thought and go wherever it takes you. No editing, no judging, just writing.

Keep your pen moving. 

Don’t stop until the time is up. 

Suspend judgment. 

Be curious. 

Tip: Write by hand.  Writing by hand connects the brain and body and, I believe, the heart. It’s especially helpful in getting those first thoughts onto the page.

Remember:  you can always write from the POV of one of your characters.

25 Great Sensory Writing Prompts.

The sense of smell.

More than any other sense, smell can connect us intimately to the past in a way our ideas cannot. A scent can initiate a flood of memories regardless of how unexpected or fleeting. A whiff of your mother’s perfume on an old sweater can catapult you to a long-forgotten memory of weekly drives to ballet class, the last kiss at bedtime, tears over a science project, or your wedding day. 

Prompt 1.    What’s the most unusual smell you’ve ever encountered?

Prompt 2.    What’s the first scent you smell upon entering your home?

Prompt 3.    What is the most dangerous smell you can think of?

Prompt 4.    If you were holding your favorite stuffed animal from childhood, what would it smell like?

Prompt 5.    Peel an orange, inhale the scent and write about the first memory that comes to mind.

For more on smell, read the blog How the Sense of Smell Can Enhance Your Writing .

The Sense of Touch   

Touch is a basic human need, and it’s the first sense we develop upon entering this world and the last sense to go as we depart this world.

It is also one of the least used senses in writing, perhaps because it’s the most difficult to describe. But think about how often we confirm what we see by reaching out and touching. A reader can more easily engage with a character’s world if they can touch it. I’m using the word touch rather than feel because the term “feel” tends to lead us to emotions, and while that’s important, it’s not what we’re aiming for here. 

Prompt 1.    Write about the last time you touched wet . 

Prompt 2.    Write about something you want to touch but can’t or shouldn’t.

Prompt 3.    Imagine you can describe a sculpture by how it feels as you run your hands over it.

Prompt 4.    Write about the earliest touch you can remember.

Prompt 5.    Write about something you can’t pass by without touching it.

For more on the sense of touch, read the blog How To Use The Sense Of Touch In Your Writing .

The Sense of Taste

Taste might be the least used sense in writing but think of all you can learn about your character through their tastebuds. The sense of taste and the act of tasting can be highly evocative, taking your reader from delight to disgust with a mere nibble.

Yes, it may be challenging to describe taste without using the senses for sight and smell, which are inherent in taste but challenge yourself to see where taste alone might take you.

Prompt 1.    This exercise will prime you for the following four prompts  Choose something you like to eat, a piece of fruit, a square of chocolate, and most anything will work. Sit quietly and take a few slow breaths. When you’re ready, take a bite or place the food item in yo r mouth and let it sit on your tongue. Take note of physical sensations, flavor, and sound. You may discover new sensations and ideas for enriching your descriptive details.  Now, write a description of what you experienced. 

Prompt 2.    Write about your favorite childhood meal and how it might ta te today.

Prompt 3.    Think of two of your favorite foods. Now write about how they might taste together.

Prompt 4.    Write about the experience of tasting a foreign dish for the first time.

Prompt 5.    Describe the taste of your favorite dessert without revealing what it is.

For more on the sense of taste, read the blog, How To Use The Sense Of Taste In Your Writing .

The Sense of Hearing

Second, to sight, hearing gives us a primary experience of the world we live in. Sounds enrich our environment; we depend on them to help u  interpret, communicate with, and express the world around us.  

While not as evocative as smell, familiar sounds can stir memories and transport us to another time and place. What more powerful tool could a writer ask for than auditory details that offer nuanced layers to a scene?

Prompt 1.   What would it sound like if  you amplified the sound of snow falling on the roof?

Prompt 2.    Describe the sound of a family holiday dinner.

Prompt 3.    Play a piece of your favorite music and write from the first image that appears in your mind.

Prompt 4.    Sit quietly for 2-3 minutes until you can identify the sound that is the farthest away. Describe it without naming it and go wherever it takes you. 

Prompt 5.    What sound do you most like/dislike?

For more on the sense of hearing, read the blog How To Use The Sense Of Hearing In Your Writing .

The Sense of Sight

The sense of sight is the sense we use most often in writing.

If you’ve ever tried to describe something without referring to sight, you’ll know just how challenging that is to accomplish. 

Perhaps this is because 70% of the body’s sense receptors cluster in the eyes, and it is mainly through seeing the world that we appraise and understand it. 

​​A visual image can be a trigger for memory and emotion. A painting can take us back to a time in history replete with triumph or tragedy. A gesture captured in a photograph may symbolize love, loss, or confusion.

Remember, sight is not only for description and scene setting; showing how your characters see the world and how they feel about it will capture your readers’ attention.

Prompt 1.    Describe your face as you might see it reflected in a pool of water.

Prompt 2.    Describe someone who doesn’t know you are watching them.

Prompt 3.    If anger were a creature, describe it.

Prompt 4.   Describe your ideal writing place.

Prompt 5.   Choose a painting and describe it without using the sense of sight  Use every other sense.

For more on the sense of sight, read the blog How To Use The Sense Of Sight In Your Writing .

I hope you find these prompts useful—let me know how it goes.

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4 Responses

Thanks for these useful prompts.

I’m glad you found them helpful!

Thank you, Kathryn.

I am from India, where the land is filled with vibrant and splendid colors, smells, tastes, and sounds. Thank you for your tips. Touch is something difficult for me to describe in words. Touch is something I find hard to put into words. Your advice gave me the courage to try.

I’ve bookmarked your page. Looking forward to reading more posts.

Thank you for leaving a commment. I’m so pleased you this blog helpful.

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Hi, I’m Kathryn Kay, the founder of A Writer Within. I offer support and inspiration to women writers through one-on-one coaching, editing services, and week-long retreats in Tuscany. My focus is on getting writers into the creative flow, beyond their internal critic, and their very best stories onto the page. If you have a writer within, let’s set her free!

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• Literary Terms
• Definition & Examples
• When & How to use Imagery

I. What is Imagery?

Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader. Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader’s experience through their senses.

II. Examples of Imagery

Imagery using  visuals:

The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in beautiful and varied constellations which were sprinkled across the astronomical landscape.

In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth with color (black as ever, bright), shape (varied constellations), and pattern (sprinkled).

Imagery using sounds:

Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began practicing her concerto .

Here, auditory imagery breaks silence with the beautiful sound of piano keys.

Imagery using scent:

She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the air, its tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a beautiful place.

The scent of hibiscus helps describe a scene which is relaxing, warm, and welcoming.

Imagery using taste:

The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended together on her tongue.

Thanks to an in-depth description of the candy’s various flavors, the reader can almost experience the deliciousness directly.

Imagery using touch:

After the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and burning muscles. The grass tickled his skin and sweat cooled on his brow.

In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained muscles, grass’s tickle, and sweat cooling on skin.

III. Types of Imagery

Here are the five most common types of imagery used in creative writing:

a. Visual Imagery

Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images, paintings, or images directly experienced through the narrator’s eyes. Visual imagery may include:

• Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.
• Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.
• Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.
• Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight.

b. Auditory Imagery

Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure silence. Auditory imagery may include:

• Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music, birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.
• Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a broom moving across the floor, and the sound of broken glass shattering on the hard floor.
• The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or eerie silence.

c. Olfactory Imagery

Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. Olfactory imagery may include:

• Fragrances, such as perfumes, enticing food and drink, and blooming flowers.
• Odors, such as rotting trash, body odors, or a stinky wet dog.

d. Gustatory Imagery

Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory imagery can include:

• Sweetness, such as candies, cookies, and desserts.
• Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as lemons and limes.
• Saltiness, such as pretzels, French fries, and pepperonis.
• Spiciness, such as salsas and curries.
• Savoriness, such as a steak dinner or thick soup.

e. Tactile Imagery

Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Tactile imagery includes:

• Temperature, such as bitter cold, humidity, mildness, and stifling heat.
• Texture, such as rough, ragged, seamless, and smooth.
• Touch, such as hand-holding, one’s in the grass, or the feeling of starched fabric on one’s skin.
• Movement, such as burning muscles from exertion, swimming in cold water, or kicking a soccer ball.

IV. The Importance of Using Imagery

Because we experience life through our senses, a strong composition should appeal to them through the use of imagery. Descriptive imagery launches the reader into the experience of a warm spring day, scorching hot summer, crisp fall, or harsh winter. It allows readers to directly sympathize with characters and narrators as they imagine having the same sense experiences. Imagery commonly helps build compelling poetry, convincing narratives , vivid plays, well-designed film sets, and descriptive songs.

V. Imagery in Literature

Imagery is found throughout literature in poems, plays, stories, novels, and other creative compositions. Here are a few examples of imagery in literature:

Excerpt describing a fish :

his brown skin hung in strips like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper: shapes like full-blown roses stained and lost through age .

This excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” is brimming with visual imagery. It beautifies and complicates the image of a fish that has just been caught. You can imagine the fish with tattered, dark brown skin “like ancient wallpaper” covered in barnacles, lime deposits, and sea lice. In just a few lines, Bishop mentions many colors including brown, rose, white, and green.

Another example :

A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit. Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint , and here she kept a diary locked by a clasp , and a notebook written in a code of her own invention. … An old tin petty cash box was hidden under a removable floorboard beneath her bed.

In this excerpt from Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement , we can almost feel the cabinet and its varnished texture or the joint that is specifically in a dovetail shape. We can also imagine the clasp detailing on the diary and the tin cash box that’s hidden under a floorboard. Various items are described in-depth, so much so that the reader can easily visualize them.

VI. Imagery in Pop Culture

Imagery can be found throughout pop culture in descriptive songs, colorful plays, and in exciting movie and television scenes.

Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox:

Wes Anderson is known for his colorful, imaginative, and vivid movie making. The imagery in this film is filled with detail, action, and excitement.

Louis Armstrong’s “ What a Wonderful World. ”

Armstrong’s classic song is an example of simple yet beautiful imagery in song. For instance, the colors are emphasized in the green trees, red blooming roses, blue skies, and white clouds from the bright day to the dark night.

VII. Related Terms

(Terms: metaphor,  onomatopoeia and personification)

Metaphor is often used as a type of imagery. Specifically, metaphor is the direct comparison of two distinct things. Here are a few examples of metaphor as imagery:

• Her smiling face is the sun .
• His temper was a hurricane whipping through the school, scaring and amazing his classmates .
• We were penguins standing in our black and white coats in the bitter cold .
• Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is also a common tool used for imagery. Onomatopoeia is a form of auditory imagery in which the word used sounds like the thing it describes. Here are a few examples of onomatopoeia as imagery:

• The fire crackled and popped .
• She rudely slurped and gulped down her soup .
• The pigs happily oinked when the farmer gave them their slop to eat .
• Personification

Personification is another tool used for imagery. Personification provides animals and objects with human-like characteristics. Here are a few examples of personification as imagery:

• The wind whistled and hissed through the stormy night .
• The tired tree’s branches moaned in the gusts of wind.
• The ocean waves slapped the shore and whispered in a fizz as they withdrew again.

List of Terms

• Alliteration
• Amplification
• Anachronism
• Anthropomorphism
• Antonomasia
• APA Citation
• Aposiopesis
• Autobiography
• Bildungsroman
• Characterization
• Circumlocution
• Cliffhanger
• Comic Relief
• Connotation
• Deus ex machina
• Deuteragonist
• Doppelganger
• Double Entendre
• Dramatic irony
• Equivocation
• Extended Metaphor
• Figures of Speech
• Flash-forward
• Foreshadowing
• Intertextuality
• Juxtaposition
• Literary Device
• Malapropism
• Parallelism
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Point of View
• Polysyndeton
• Protagonist
• Red Herring
• Rhetorical Device
• Rhetorical Question
• Science Fiction
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• Synesthesia
• Turning Point
• Understatement
• Urban Legend
• Verisimilitude
• Essay Guide
• Cite This Website

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What is Imagery in Literature? Definition and Examples

by Fija Callaghan

What pulls readers into a story? Is it strong, relatable characters? Fantastic settings? Or is it a deep, universal theme that hits your readers on a visceral level?

These literary devices are all super important for creating a work that people love to read, but often what really draws in readers is imagery ; the vivid way in which we show them the world of our story. Imagery is what brings your story from the distant somewhere else into the here and now .

We’ll look at how to use vivid descriptions and figurative language to engage your reader’s senses, along with some examples of imagery that show you how to create a sensory experience in the reader’s mind.

What is imagery in creative writing?

Imagery is a literary device that uses descriptive language to create mental images for the reader. This can be used to give context to the events of your story, to immerse your reader in an unfamiliar setting, to communicate mood and tone for a particular scene, or to create an emotional response in your reader.

You can create imagery that activates all of the reader’s senses, not just the visual sense. Sound, smell, taste, touch, and movement all help to create vibrant scenes that make them feel as if they were there.

When your reader begins to feel like they’re a part of the world of your story, that’s when they start to invest in the characters , events, and big-picture themes that you’re working to communicate through your writing.

How is imagery different from symbolism?

Imagery and symbolism are two literary devices that sound kind of similar because they both use images to communicate with readers. But they’re not quite the same. The biggest difference is that imagery engages readers on a sensory, emotional level, and symbolism engages the reader on a more intellectual level.

Descriptive imagery uses all of our senses to create a vivid picture of a person, place, object, or moment for the reader. For example, consider this use of imagery to describe a box:

The box full of letters is made of metal that’s painted bright red, heavier than it looks and cold to the touch. The metal is smooth except for one place near the lock, which is rough with scratches where someone once tried to pry it open. There’s a handle on top that squeaks when you try to lift it because of the rust that’s starting to form where the handle joins the lid.

Can you see the box clearly in your mind? That’s imagery at work.

Compare that to symbolism, which is when a writer attributes an underlying meaning to a person, place, or object. This brings depth to your story and helps communicate underlying themes and ideas.

If you’re using symbolism, you might say that the letter box is a symbol of a couple’s growing resentment to each other—the vivid color makes it impossible to ignore, it weighs them down more than they’d like to admit, and their relationship is beginning to corrode because of it.

Using imagery and symbolism together like that is very effectively for create strong, emotional connections for your readers.

Literal vs. figurative imagery

When we talk about imagery, we’re really talking about two distinct devices: literal imagery and figurative imagery. Let’s look a little closer at each one.

Literal imagery

This type of imagery uses descriptive language to show something exactly the way it is, using ideas that we can see, hear, and touch. When we described the box above as red, cold, heavy, smooth, and squeaking, we were using literal imagery—straightforward, unadorned words to create a realistic idea in the reader’s head.

This technique can be very powerful because it uses language that we already have a clear reference for. This makes the scene more real and tangible for the reader.

Figurative imagery

Figurative or poetic imagery uses descriptive literary devices like similes, metaphors, and hyperbole to create a vivid picture for the reader. Rather than telling them exactly what they’re seeing in the world of your story, this type of imagery allows them to create their own image out of your words. Using poetic imagery, we could describe the box as “red as a gaping wound,” or “heavy as an elephant,” or say that holding it is like “reaching into icy water.”

This kind of language can create a strong emotional response in the reader.

Many authors favor one type of imagery over the other—what type of imagery you most resonate with is an important part of your writer’s voice . Finding a comfortable balance of both literal and figurative imagery in your writing is ultimately one of the things that makes a great writer.

Types of imagery to use in your story

Effective imagery uses all of the senses to create a detailed world for your story. Most of us rely mainly on our eyes to take in information, but as a writer, you have a whole range of physical sensations to explore. Every one of them can be used to bring your reader deeper and deeper into your story world.

1. Visual imagery

Visual imagery encompasses everything that we can see. Colors, shapes, sizes, proportions, angles, edges, textures, and contrast are all different things you can communicate through the readers’ senses.

Saying that a man stood half-in and half-out of shadow, his wool collar turned up against his face and his hair tipped golden by the lamplight, is an example of using different aspects of visual imagery to create a clear scene.

2. Auditory imagery

Auditory imagery is everything that we hear. After our eyes, our ears tell us the most about our environment. Your characters might hear the sounds of other voices, nearby traffic, music coming from a neighbor’s apartment, water dripping through pipes, the knocking of an air conditioner, branches rustling, distant machinery, a keyboard clattering, or the soft rustle of the turning pages of a book.

Using auditory imagery can reveal surprising things about your story and convey new information to your characters, as well as immersing your readers deeper into the scene.

3. Gustatory imagery

Gustatory imagery is the imagery of taste. What and how we taste is one of the most important ways in which we define culture, and often one of the first things people become aware of when immersing themselves in cultures outside of their own.

You can use sensory details to describe the way food tastes, of course, but also the way the air tastes in a new environment, the way blood tastes if you accidentally bite your tongue, the flavour of plastic and ink as you chew the end of your pen in thought.

You can also use gustatory imagery in a metaphorical way, as well as in a literal one; for example, the way a new love affair might taste sweet but an argument might taste bitter and acidic.

4. Olfactory imagery

Olfactory imagery is the imagery of scent. More than any other sense, our sense of smell is deeply linked to the way we form and perceive memory. In your story, using olfactory imagery is an easy way to link different times and places.

Olfactory memories can be pleasant, or they can be less so; your characters memories might be triggered by the smell of lavender like they had their childhood garden, by the smell of hot concrete in the sun as they remember the events of a particularly hot day, by the smell of burning toast that brings them back to a traumatic event, or by the fragrance that a loved one used to wear, even if your character hasn’t thought about them in decades.

5. Tactile imagery

Tactile imagery encompasses our sense of physical contact. For many people, touch is the sense we subconsciously trust the most; it’s easy to doubt the things you see and hear, but if it can be tangibly felt by your bare skin, it becomes real in an unequivocal way.

Things like a baby’s skin, a man’s unshaven face, the rough fabric of a tweed coat, slimy cough medicine, a warm teacup, or the cold surface of a window are all ways to use this type of imagery to create an emotional impact. How do different textures bring back memories and elicit feelings?

6. Kinesthetic imagery

Kinesthetic imagery is related to tactile imagery, but it specifically refers to the feeling of movement. These can be things like hair blowing across your face in the wind, a rope slipping slowly from your grasp, the discomfort of shifting an aching muscle, the feeling of bread dough being kneaded in your hands, or the feeling of shoes beginning to drag across the sidewalk after a very long walk.

This type of imagery reflects one state changing to another, and is often used in moments where something is being created, broken, found, or lost.

7. Composite imagery

Composite imagery is a device that uses contradictory senses to create an image or feeling. These are always figurative , rather than literal . For example, you could say, “kissing her tasted like sunlight,” mixing gustatory imagery with tactile and visual imagery; or, “his voice sounded like splintered wood,” mixing auditory imagery with tactile imagery.

Using poetic imagery in this way uses metaphors to create surprising connections and shows your reader what’s happening in a fresh way.

Evocative examples of imagery in literature

1. stardust , by neil gaiman.

Something stung his left hand. He slapped at it, expecting to see an insect. He looked down to see a pale yellow leaf. It fell to the ground with a rustle. On the back of his hand, a veining of red, wet blood welled up. The wood whispered about them.

This moment opens with tactile sensations in the feeling of being stung and then the slapping of skin on skin. Then Gaiman shows us, through visual images, the conflict between what the character expected to see and what he really saw. The verbs “rustle” and “whispered” add a powerful auditory experience to this vibrant scene.

2. The Strawberry Thief , by Joanne Harris

The dry reek of cigarettes has become the scent of burning leaves; the sweet and simple bonfire scent of autumn nights by the fireside. The chocolate is cooler now: the silky consistency has returned. I return the pan to the burner. Tiny petals of steam lift from the glossy surface.

This author uses olfactory imagery to marvelous effect as she shows the subtle change from one moment to another. Then the moment moves uses sight to explore the contrasting textures of the chocolate and the steam, taking us effectively from the negative “reek of cigarettes” to the more pleasant-sounding “tiny petals of steam.”

3. The Little Sister , by Raymond Chandler

I smelled Los Angeles before I got to it. It smelled stale and old like a living room that had been closed too long. But the colored lights fooled you. The lights were wonderful. There ought to be a monument to the man who invented neon lights.

This is another example of a literary work that effectively uses imagery in juxtaposition, showing the city’s worst and best qualities side by side. He uses olfactory imagery to express the negative in a poetic and imaginative way, and then lays down the positive aspect through visually focusing on the brightness of the lights around him.

4. An Irish Country Girl , by Patrick Taylor

She smiled, but her smile soon fled when she heard a very different noise. It was wind howling through bare-branched trees. The walls of the kitchen became blurred, the range and stove vanished, there were no cooking smells, only a chill in her nostrils. Maureen saw flakes, whirling and flying, and small sheep huddled against a gale.

Here Taylor uses auditory imagery to take the character and the reader from a lighthearted moment into a much darker one. He uses olfactory imagery very powerfully by describing an lack of smells, rather than ones that are present, and visual imagery to pick out just a few poignant details that make the scene come to life.

5. The Wild Swans , by Jackie Morris

The lower floors were warm from the kitchen fires and rich with the scent of baking and roasting, bright with the bustle of busy working. The higher floors danced with the light that flooded in through the casement windows.

Morris blends different examples of imagery to create pictures of a single moment full of light and life. She uses tactile imagery in showing us that the rooms are warm, olfactory imagery in the foods that are being prepared, kinesthetic imagery in the bustle of workers and the dancing light, and visual imagery in describing the fires and the way light falls through the windows. In this example, several types of imagery are effortlessly entwined at once.

Exercise: increasing your sensory awareness

Here’s a fun, easy exercise to help you develop your writer’s muscles and create stronger imagery for your story.

Go sit somewhere away from home like a park, shopping mall, or café. Bring a notebook with you so you can record your observations. Get settled and make six headings in your notebook, one for each of the imagery types we looked at above. What you’re going to do is try to focus on your environment using only one sense at a time.

Begin with any sense you feel like, except visual—because human beings are so reliant on their visual sense, it’s best to leave that one for the very end and challenge yourself to experience the world through your other five senses first.

Close your eyes and use the sense you picked to pay attention to the world around you.

What do you hear? Are there people talking close by, fountains bubbling, harsh noises of espresso machines grinding, dogs barking, wind rustling the treetops, old pipes whispering behind walls?

What do you smell? Grass being cut, aromatics in soil released by the rain, hairspray straggling in the air, somebody’s greasy takeout?

What do you feel? The weight of your scarf around your neck, smooth wood from a park bench under your hands, a gentle breeze blowing stray hair across your forehead, vibrations under your feet from someone running nearby?

Go through every sense and after each one, open your eyes and record al the concrete details you remember.

You’ll be amazed at how much information there is around us all the time that our bodies are taking in without even realizing it. Every single one of these experiences can be used in your writing. Little details like these ones will make your stories more real and present for the reader as they immerse themselves in your world.

Imagery gives life and color to your writing

Imagery is around us all the time in the things we see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. Using this sensual language in your writing is a great way to communicate new information with the reader, create a shift in tone from one moment to another, add depth to a particular scene, and bring new life to your story.

Once you begin experimenting with different types of imagery in your writing, you’ll find yourself looking at the world of your story—and the world around you—in a whole new way.

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Enchanting Marketing

Writing advice for small business

Imagery Examples: How to Paint Vivid Pictures with Only a Few Words

by Henneke | 54 enchanting opinions, add yours? :)

Lying on the sofa for a mid-afternoon break, I hear a dove cooing. A car drives by at a distance. The bright sunlight lights up the room, and my pillow feels comfy.

Seconds later, I enter the hustle and bustle of an Istanbul market …

I see women in miniskirts. I hear drivers catcalling out of car windows. I see tourists bent under the weight of their backpacks. I hear shoe-shine brushes rattling against brass boxes. And I smell tobacco, sweat, fried food, and a whiff of salty sea air.

Good writers invite readers into a different world

What I was hearing, smelling, and seeing was not what was happening in my room. I was reading the book 10 Minutes and 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak.

This book reminds me of the two basic requirements of good storytelling. Firstly, a good storyteller keeps a good pace and uses cliffhangers to keep us hooked so we’re eager to find out what’s happening next.

And secondly, a storyteller pulls readers into a different world. We’re experiencing the story as if we’re there with the protagonist. A good storyteller directs a mental movie in the reader’s mind.

This post is about directing mental movies—a useful skill in any type of writing, whether you’re writing a novel, a business newsletter, a blog post, or a product description.

Vivid imagery creates a mental movie

Elif Shafak’s storytelling is extraordinarily vivid.

Even though I’ve never been to Turkey, it’s like I’m there, together with Leila—the main character of the book—and her friends. The descriptions pull us into their story:

Their house in Van was so large that even whispers echoed throughout. Shadows danced on the walls as if across cavernous space. A long, winding wooden staircase led from the living room to the first-floor landing.

The sensory experience gets even better when Shafak introduces taste and smell:

Vendors peeled salted cucumbers, squeezed fresh pickle juice, roasted chickpeas and yelled over one another while motorists blasted their horns for no reason at all. Smells of tobacco, sweat, perfume, fried food and an occasional reefer – albeit illegal – mingled with the briny sea air.

On what was to be her last birthday, her friends had settled on a rich menu: lamb stew with aubergine puree, börek with spinach and feta cheese, kidney beans with spicy pastrami, stuffed green peppers and a little jar of fresh caviar. The cake was a surprise, supposedly, but Leila had overheard them discussing it; the walls in the flat were thinner than the slices of pastrami, and, after decades of heavy smoking and even heavier drinking, Nalan rasped when she whispered, her voice husky like sandpaper scraping on metal.

Sensory writing has the power to transport readers to a different world because we experience sensory words as if we’re actually hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing, and feeling what’s going on. Research suggests that our brain responds in the same way when we smell sweat as when we read about the smell of sweat, or when we hear a husky voice or read about it.

In business writing, we can use sensory writing to invite readers into our world, too. We can let readers imagine working with us or let them picture what it’s like to use your product. This may even increase a reader’s desire to work with us or to use our product.

Examples of imagery in business writing

Sharon Tanton is a fabulous storyteller and content marketing coach. In her newsletter earlier this week, she invites us into her garden:

I’m writing to you from my garden. Sitting by the pond, I’m making the most of the last sunny day before rain returns to the UK tomorrow. There’s a blackbird singing on the fence in front of me, and a blanket of blossoms at my feet. Everything is green, so the orange marigolds shine brightly. They’ve seeded themselves among the beetroot, but I love their cheerfulness, so they can stay.

Sharon’s sensory description makes us feel we’re there in the garden with her, and she uses gardening as a metaphor to discuss how content marketing also requires you to “ plant more than you need, pay attention to what thrives, and give lots away to the people you care about. ”

(For more content marketing tips from Sharon, join her newsletter here. )

Imagery works also for product descriptions, allowing readers to imagine what it’s like to use your product or wear your fashion.

The copywriters at J Peterman , for instance, make a dress more appealing because we feel like we’re floating in it already, and when we wear it, will someone want to hold us in their arms, too?

There are certain nights in the Hudson Valley when the moon lights up the universe (…). The scientists say this is just sunlight reflecting off the moon. The result is a silvery blue hue of silky soft light. Serene. Moody yet playful. Dark but extraordinarily luminous. There is an other-worldly quality to it. I’ve always wanted to capture that light and hold it in my arms. Floral Moonlight Dress (No. 5601). Lightweight (as if you’re floating) and sheer silk georgette fit-and-flare.

The phrase painting pictures with words is often used to describe vivid imagery. But the strongest imagery isn’t only visual; it often appeals to two or three different senses.

How to paint pictures using the 6 senses

We commonly talk about 5 senses:

• Sight: How does something look, including color, shape, or appearance
• Sound: What or who is making what kind of sound, and how loud or soft is it
• Touch: How does it feel when we touch something, including its texture, temperature, humidity, or even air pressure
• Smell: What kind of aroma is it—is it natural or artificial, strong or subtle, pleasant or repulsive, and what does it remind you of
• Taste: Whether something is sweet, sour, savory, salty, or bitter, or whether it tastes like a specific kind of fruit, vegetable, spice, etc.

On top of that, you can use motion as a 6th sense. When we use strong verbs to describe motion, readers experience the motion as if they’re there, too. You can feel the car swerving. You can sense the dancers graciously floating across the dance floor. The description of a roller-coaster may even make you dizzy.

An exercise in using imagery

You don’t have to turn yourself into a poet to write vivid imagery.

Try this simple exercise: Take 5 minutes to describe a scene using at least two different senses. You can describe where you are right now or a scene in the last 24 hours.

We tried this exercise last week together with 255 participants in a live Writing Huddle . Reading sensory descriptions from across the world made me feel connected, inspired, and humbled. Here’s a snapshot:

• I lift my face to the sun and let its warmth kiss my face. (Shanthi)
• A robin in the tree started singing—a bright song filled with joy and excitement. (Paul)
• I watch the beautiful light through thinning blossom. (Liz)
• The Amelanchier (or Shadbush) looks like a cloud. Hundreds of thousands of tiny white flowers are balancing in the cold air. It smells vanilla. (Véronique)
• Colors of beige are turning to soft shades of green. (Julie)
• The cat’s tail is brushing against my leg. (Tetiana)
• I smelled the soft aroma of pollen in the air and my nose filled up with slimy mucus. (Joel)
• A crow squawks in the distance and when I look up the sky is a brilliant blue. (Diana)
• I bit into the buttery flakes of my almond croissant as memories of my mom melted into my mouth. (Sheila)

As a writer, imagery allows you to be present in your surroundings. What do you hear? What do you smell? What do you see? Is there something you can touch and feel? Or taste?

By sharing what you’re experiencing, you can invite your readers into your world. It’s as if they’re there with you.

Write to connect

As writers, we’re at a physical distance from our readers.

But we can pull readers closer to us, invite them into our worlds, and make them feel like we’re together.

We can put an arm around a shoulder and whisper a few words of encouragement. We can pat a reader on their back and celebrate a small achievement—we made it through another day.

We can laugh together, or cry together.

Or we can simply let ourselves be, listen to the birdsong, and let life flow past us.

Writing is like magic sometimes.

30 imagery examples

The imagery examples below are organized by category. Click a link to jump ahead to a specific category:

Visual imagery (sight) Auditory imagery (sound) Olfactory imagery (smell) Gustatory imagery (taste) Tactile imagery (touch) Kinesthetic imagery (movement) Multi-sensory imagery

Literal vs figurative imagery

The imagery examples in this overview are all literal. They describe what you can see, hear, taste, or feel.

Imagery can also be figurative. For instance, someone can have a heart of stone. This doesn’t mean a heart looks literally like a stone; it means someone is cold-hearted, like a stone.

Another figurative example: After a long period of dry weather, the earth breathes a sigh of relief when the first rain arrives. The earth can’t inhale and exhale like a human or an animal. But it seems like the earth breathes a sigh of relief, like a person would when something arrives they’ve been waiting for a long time.

1. Examples of visual imagery (sight)

In his book An Immense World , Ed Yong describes the size, color, and shape of a bold jumping spider:

Barely bigger than my smallest fingernail, the bold jumping spider is mostly black, except for white fuzz on its knees and vibrant turquoise splotches on the appendages that hold its fangs. It is unexpectedly cute. Its stocky body, short limbs, large head, and wide eyes are all rather childlike, and stir the same deep psychological bias that makes babies and puppies adorable.

By describing three aspects of visual imagery (size, color, and shape), Yong gives us a quick impression of what it looks like.

In her book The Island of the Missing Trees , Elif Shafak describes a house decorated by someone who loves the color blue:

The entrance was bright azure, with dangling evil eye beads and horseshoes nailed up. The chequered tablecloths were navy and white, the curtains a vivid sapphire, the tiles on the walls adorned with patterns in aquamarine, and even the wide, languid ceiling fans were of a similar hue.

That’s a lot of blue, right? Can you picture the scene?

In his book Arctic Dreams , Barry Lopez describes the colors of polar bears:

The brightest whites show up at the spring molt, the purest of these being those of young cubs. With exposure to sunlight, the hairs take on a subtle coloring; soft yellowish tones appear on the hips, along the flanks, and down the legs—a pale lemon wash, apricot yellows, cream buffs, straw whites. The tones deepen each year as the animal ages. In the low sunlight of a fall afternoon an older male’s fur might suggest the yellow golds of ripe wheat.

In her book River Kings , archaeologist Cat Jarman describes a bead found in a Viking grave:

The bead itself was carefully wrapped in tissue paper within a clear polythene bag. Its orange colour bordered on brown; it was approximately a centimetre long and half a centimetre wide, with neatly cut, faceted corners and a polished and shiny surface. Apart from a few scars on one side, and some dirt still stuck in the hole bored through it, the bead was in perfect condition.

And later on she writes:

To me, there was something compelling about that tiny bead. The smooth, almost translucent material; the sharply cut corners; the faceted shape with angles that looked so perfect and so modern. I couldn’t help but obsess over all the hands, all the lives, that it had intersected with over more than a millennium including, now, my own.

Imagery doesn’t always need an extensive description. In her book Free , Lea Ypi describes growing up in communist Albania where Coca Cola is so rare, her mother buys an empty can and displays it at home:

She spent the afternoon deliberating with my grandmother where to put it, and since it was empty, whether to adorn it with a fresh rose from the garden. They had decided that though the rose was an original idea, it would distract from the aesthetic value of the can, and so they had left it bare, on top of our best embroidered cloth.

The description above may seem bare. However, a more detailed description is unnecessary because we all know what a Coca Cola can looks like.

I remembered the imagery of the Coca Cola can on display long after I finished reading this book. Simple imagery can be strong and memorable.

In her book Fathoms , Rebecca Giggs describes our relationship with whales. Her picture of how ocean pollution impacts whales also stuck with me. Here’s how she describes the contents of a gut of a deceased sperm whale:

That was how I first learnt about the sperm whale, washed up dead on the Spanish coastline with a greenhouse, an entire greenhouse, in its belly. The flattened greenhouse — from a hydroponics business in Almería — enclosed tarps, hosepipes and ropes, flowerpots, a spray canister, and bits of synthetic burlap. It had once sheltered off-season tomatoes, grown for export to Britain. High winds likely collapsed the structure, bundling it from dryland into the ocean. (…) In addition to the greenhouse, the sperm whale had swallowed parts of a mattress, a coathanger, a ‘dishwater plastic pot’, and an ice-cream tub.

Again, the imagery is relatively sparsely described but more details are unnecessary. I can picture the greenhouse, the mattress, and the coathanger in the whale’s belly. The picture has stuck with me. As Giggs writes: “Inside the whale, the world.”

2. Examples of auditory imagery (sound)

Sayaka Murata starts her book Convenience Store Woman with a beautiful example of imagery. Note how the imagery is mostly auditory ( tinkle, chime, beeps, rustle, clacking ):

A convenience store is a world of sound. From the tinkle of the door chime to the voices of TV celebrities advertising new products over the in-store cable network, to the calls of the store workers, the beeps of the bar code scanner, the rustle of customers picking up items and placing them in baskets, and the clacking of heels walking around the store. It all blends into the convenience store sound that ceaselessly caresses my eardrums.

Do you also feel like you’re there in the supermarket, hearing all these sounds?

In his book The Eloquence of the Sardine , Bill François describes the underwater orchestra of fishes. Here’s an example:

The jack (or trevally) and the sunfish prefer higher notes and grind their teeth to play screeching melodies. The seahorse plays its own personal xylophone by scratching its neck with the bony ridges on the back of its head, while the catfish makes a high-pitched noise by plucking its spines. As for the humble goby, found in rock pools, no one has yet managed to work out the hydrodynamic mechanism that enables it to sing its love songs simply by blowing water out of its gills.

Can you almost hear all the sounds just from reading that?

In his book The Secret Knowledge of Water , Craig Childs describes the sounds he hears when walking in the desert:

Across the flats I heard only the hushing sound of my boots through sand, then the sharper sound of my boots through the broken granite above the washes. The hum of one of the stray breezes through thousands of saguaro cactus needles. The sound of creosote leaves scratching the brim of my hat.

3. Olfactory imagery (smell)

In The Maid , a whodunnit by Nita Prose, Molly describes entering the lobby of the Regency Grand Hotel where she works as maid:

But perhaps my favorite part of the lobby is the olfactory sensation, that first redolent breath as I take in the scent of the hotel itself at the start of every shift – the mélange of ladies’ fine perfumes, the dark musk of the leather armchairs, the tangy zing of lemon polish that’s used twice daily on the gleaming marble floors.

Can you imagine entering the lobby and smelling the mix of aromas?

Jude Stewart has written a guide book to smells titled Revelations in Air . Here’s how she describes the smell of ginger:

The scent combines the spreading deep heat of cinnamon with a bright citrus burst. It smells of sunshine, the tropics, the somnolent pleasure of lazing on a beach compelled to motion only by your body’s inclinations and your mood.

And the smell of bacon:

The smell holds the promise of good pork and fat’s full, rounded savor. It’s sweet, syrupy, crystalline. It pings satisfyingly with brine. You might catch a whiff of smoke edging the smell delicately; one sniffs for that note constantly, checking for imminent burn.

Can you smell it?

4. Gustatory imagery (taste)

Grace Dent describes her favorite dish in restaurant Tallow in Tunbridge Wells (UK):

My favourite course may well have been the hake starter, featuring plump, perfectly timed fried white fish in a heavenly puddle of elegant curry sauce, with three of the fattest, meatiest, shelled mussels drinking in the fragrant broth.

And she describes the razor clam and blood sausage on toast at the Lisboeta in London:

it tasted like musky armpit

Jay Rayner describes the small plated dishes at the Acme Fire Cult in London:

Leeks are grilled until the point of surrender, when they are sweet and soft. They are then served at room temperature with their own version of romesco sauce, in which the ground almonds have been substituted with ground pistachios. It’s a study in verdant shades of green. There’s a welcome acidity to the grainy romesco. New potatoes have been smoked and are lubricated by a tahini mayo and a nutty chilli oil or rayu, made with grains from the brewery. Grilled cauliflower florets come in a ripe, buttery Indian-accented mess of a sauce under ribbons of pickled onion.

Food descriptions are rarely gustatory only. For instance, Rayner describes the leeks as soft (tactile) and refers to shades of green (visual).

5. Tactile imagery (touch)

In her book The Soul of an Octopus , Sy Montgomery describes the feeling when an octopus named Athena touches her with its tentacles:

Athena’s suction is gentle, though insistent. It pulls me like an alien’s kiss.

And she describes how Athena’s head feels:

As I hold her glittering gaze, I instinctively reach to touch her head. “As supple as leather, as tough as steel, as cold as night,” Hugo wrote of the octopus’s flesh; but to my surprise, her head is silky and softer than custard.

For an octopus, taste and touch are strangely connected:

Octopuses can taste with their entire bodies, but this sense is most exquisitely developed in their suckers. Athena’s is an exceptionally intimate embrace. She is at once touching and tasting my skin, and possibly the muscle, bone, and blood beneath. Though we have only just met, Athena already knows me in a way no being has known me before.

6. Kinesthetic imagery (movement)

This is from Niall Williams’ This Is Happiness :

(…) she whirled around the kitchen with the briskness of those butterflies that must condense a lifetime into a few days.

Note how the word whirl is a strong verb giving a sense of a fast, circular-like motion. This feeling of motion is amplified by the metaphor of the butterfly.

In his book An Immense World , Ed Yong describes the different sensory perceptions of animals.

For instance, he describes how an elephant uses his trunk to smell its surroundings. He uses strong verbs to describe the trunk’s motions:

Whether an elephant is walking or feeding, alarmed or relaxed, its trunk is constantly in motion, swinging, coiling, twisting, scanning, sensing.

This series of verbs ( swinging, coiling, twisting, scanning, sensing ) helps create the impression of the trunk being constantly in motion. You can imagine it, right?

Yong also describe the difference of movement between light and smell:

Unlike light, which always moves in a straight line, smells diffuse and seep, flood and swirl.

7. Examples of multi-sensory imagery

Benjamin Myers creates a multi-sensory picture in this poetic sentence from his book The Offing :

Sitting here now by the open window, a glissando of birdsong on the very lightest of breezes that carries with it the scent of a final incoming summer, I cling to poetry as I cling to life.

The open window is a visual detail, the glissando of birdsong is auditory, the lightest of breezes could be tactile or a sense of movement, the scent of the incoming summer hints at a olfactory (smell-related) detail.

And this is from Myers’ book The Perfect Golden Circle :

The sunset this evening is spectacular, the sky a scree of fleshy pinks and fiery oranges as both men watch in wordless wonder. The last chattering notes of bird calls become infrequent, until finally there is nothing but the gaps between them, and those gaps take the shape of long silence that settles the nerves and cools the blood.

Lovely, isn’t it?

First, there’s the visual imagery ( fleshy pinks and fiery oranges ), then there’s the auditory imagery ( chattering notes of bird calls and long silence ), and it ends with motion and tactile imagery ( settling the nerves and cools the blood ).

This is how Robin Wall Kimmerer starts her book Braiding Sweetgrass :

Hold out your hands and let me lay upon them a sheaf of freshly picked sweetgrass, loose and flowing, like newly washed hair. Golden green and glossy above, the stems are banded with purple and white where they meet the ground. Hold the bundle up to your nose. Find the fragrance of honeyed vanilla over the scent of river water and black earth and you understand its scientific name: Hierochloe odorata, meaning the fragrant, holy grass.

Isn’t that a lovely introduction to how sweetgrass delights your senses?

This short paragraph includes tactile imagery (the sweetgrass feels loose and flowing like newly washed hair and it’s glossy ), visual imagery ( golden green, purple, and white ), and olfactory imagery ( the fragrance of honeyed vanilla over the scent of river water and black earth ).

In his book The Secret Knowledge of Water , Craig Childs describes the sight, motion, and sounds of a waterfall in the dessert:

The vision was incongruous: desert cliffs rising thousands of feet, bare and dry as chalkboards, and out of one, the emergence of water. It plunged hundreds of feet from the high face, pounding against several ledges, then rumbled into boulders with the strength of a river. What was more incongruous than the sight was the sound. This was a spring by definition, a tap into an underground water source, not bubbling and singing like the larger springs I had seen, but bellowing furiously at the air.

In The Book of Difficult Fruit , Kate Lebo describes the quince, first a visual description:

The fruit was yellow under a scrim of gray fuzz, voluptuous and firm, like pregnant pears.

Next, she describes the smell of quince:

I inhaled this stranger, my first quince, until my nose lost track of honey and citrus, but still held a wisp of cool, clean peel, an idea of sweetness, a thin hit of rose.

And there’s tactile and gustatory imagery:

The quince was firmer than an apple. I felt, for a moment, like I was using my teeth as a knife. Then an astringent sour sensation wicked all the moisture from my mouth. I stood dumb, cotton-tongued, the quince loose in my hand. I’d expected it to taste the way it smelled.

Lastly, Lebo describes the sensory transformation when you cook quince:

As quince stews, its cream-white flesh turns deep rose, and its fragrance transforms from something heavenly to something earthbound but still delicious. Quince has a satisfying grainy texture when cooked, like a pear that has kept its composure.

Through Keto’s stories and sensory descriptions, readers get to know these difficult and unusual fruits.

In All the Pretty Horses , Cormac McCarthy describes a scene 16-year old John Grady Cole and his best friend Lacey Rawlins:

The night was almost warm. He and Rawlins lay in the road where they could feel the heat coming off the blacktop against their backs and they watched stars falling down the long black slope of the firmament. In the distance they heard a door slam. A voice called. A coyote that had been yammering somewhere in the hills to the south stopped. Then it began again.

The description moves effortlessly from tactile (the warm night, heat against their backs) to visual (stars falling, the long black slope of the firmament) and auditory (a voice called, a coyote is yammering).

Books mentioned in this post:

• 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak (highly recommended)
• The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak (highly recommended)
• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong (highly recommended)
• Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez
• River Kings by Cat Jarman
• Free by Lea Ypi (recommended)
• Fathoms: The World in the Whale by Rebecca Giggs (recommended)
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (recommended)
• The Eloquence of the Sardine by Bill François (highly recommended)
• The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs (highly recommended)
• The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (recommended)
• This Is Happiness by Niall Williams (recommended)
• The Offing by Benjamin Myers (highly recommended)
• The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers (highly recommended)
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (highly recommended)
• The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly by Kate Lebo (highly recommended)
• All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (highly recommended)

Recommended reading on imagery in writing:

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Reader Interactions

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June 14, 2022 at 9:08 pm

enjoyed the swift education in writing.

June 14, 2022 at 9:15 pm

Thank you, Harold. Happy writing!

May 12, 2021 at 8:16 am

It’s true. Masterly writings must ‘show’ the readers and not ‘tell’…. From my angle of view, imagery is the cornerstone of a concise prose or any piece of writing…..Thank you for the eye-opening session above

May 12, 2021 at 8:37 am

I love concise writing with strong imagery. It’s a careful balance. Too much imagery can slow the writing down too much. And not enough imagery makes the writing feel flat.

Thank you for stopping by again, Deniz. Happy writing!

May 21, 2020 at 11:58 am

Is it just me or using flowery words in storytelling actually destroys the imagery it is intended to create?

Take a look at this:

“Shadows danced on the walls as if across cavernous space.”

I would stop reading if I came across this sentence in a story.

May 21, 2020 at 12:37 pm

Too much flowery language can indeed slow readers down.

In this case, the imagery didn’t slow me down. The opposite was true: the imagery drew me into the story helping me visualize the story.

Of course, to some extent, it’s a personal preference.

May 13, 2020 at 7:24 am

Greetings Henneke! Your writing is always thought clear, well articulated and relatable to any reader who loves reading master piece articles! I agree with you that imagery is second to none when it comes to blending a message to readers’ emotions! Well matched images to content and its context bring out emotions. Thank you for this article. Keep doing what you do best.

May 13, 2020 at 4:23 pm

I’m glad you enjoyed this article, Tony. Thank you for your compliment, and for stopping by!

May 12, 2020 at 12:55 pm

Wow! I’ve been reading your blog for a while now but never had the privilege until yesterday (on the replay) to actually “meet” you. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and Sharon added so much to the fun! I’m a really tactile sanguine extrovert transplanted Brit now living in North Carolina, U.S. I tell folks over here, “I’m Missouri, the show-me state.” And I am. I’m ok with tell, but I prefer show. It paints the picture so much better! Which probably explains my fascination with books over movies – you get to imagine with books and it’s a rare movie that turns out better than the book in my opinion. How do you pronounce your name? I try hard but I want to get it right when I share your wonderful wisdom…

Hi Kari – I’m glad you enjoyed the Writing Huddle! Thank you for letting me know. I also prefer reading books over watching movies.

I will pass your compliment on to Sharon 🙂

The first e of Henneke is like the first e of elephant. The second and third e of Henneke are like the second e of elephant. You find a short recording on my home page.

April 30, 2020 at 1:33 pm

I became fond of your posts really, Henneke. I agree sensory writing can fetch you in the world the writing piece talks about. I have read so many books around various topics where I felt the same. And guess what, when you sleep you also have dreams of that eternal world. It’s my own experience!

May 1, 2020 at 5:54 pm

Thank you so much for your compliment, Faizan. I’m glad you’re enjoying my writing.

April 30, 2020 at 1:25 pm

Dank u wel, Henneke! So much good to absorb… so much to improve my website… I am a freedom activist – and try with my website to reach my children, my grand-children and my Afrikaner people. So difficult after 26 long years of oppression – as if they have withdrawn from everything … I have tried to apply your methods before, but today you have reached my soul … My message will be the same but I will apply the magic you showed me today. Thank you once again!

May 1, 2020 at 5:53 pm

I’m glad you enjoyed this article about imagery, Jan. Happy writing!

April 29, 2020 at 10:22 am

It’s so wonderful. As you’ve mentioned we can pull the readers at a physical distance and make them feel as if they are there through sensory words.

I’m thrilled with this art of copywriting skills.

Thank you Santosh Thakur

April 29, 2020 at 10:29 am

I’m glad you enjoyed it, Santosh. Happy writing!

April 29, 2020 at 4:42 am

silent photograph a summer holiday past watches over my work

April 29, 2020 at 9:48 am

Very evocative!

April 29, 2020 at 2:01 am

Wow, I love this. I could imagine every scene and I felt as though I was there. At the moment where I am, I can hear the many types of birds happily twittering in the trees after this morning’s rain. Oh, and there is the sound of the liar bird. Living in Australia, I’ll only be able to listen to recordings of the huddle as they are in the wee small hours of the morning

I wish it was possible to arrange events at a time that would work for everyone but I’m glad you’ve been able to watch the recording.

I had never heard of a Lyre bird before so looked it up and came across a wonderful short video about the songs of the Lyre bird (with David Attenborough). Thank you for sharing. I can now picture you listening to the birds 🙂

April 29, 2020 at 12:44 am

Thank you for writing huddle and this great blog. I’ve a question. What is the difference between Sensory words and Visceral words? Examples plz

April 29, 2020 at 9:42 am

I have never come across the phrase visceral words. I imagine that what is meant is more emotional words. See also my article about power words here: https://www.enchantingmarketing.com/power-words/

April 28, 2020 at 10:55 pm

I am in my strangely exotic blue office, surrounded by paintings of wild horses, I smell the oak bursting into bloom outside my window, while listening to radio warnings as the light fades. My mouth tastes like curry awash in memory of other lives where there was always plague, and the burning at the ghats. Thank you for reminding me to come to my senses. Stay safe n well.

April 29, 2020 at 9:40 am

I can picture you in your office. Love the idea that you can smell the oak bursting into bloom.

I find there’s something special to return to our senses, especially in times like these it’s a good way for me to get out of my head and ground myself into the here and now so I can appreciate the small things in life.

I hope you’re staying safe and well, too. ♥️

April 28, 2020 at 9:26 pm

This post is encouraging me. Thank you!

April 28, 2020 at 9:52 pm

Thank you, Suu. Happy writing!

April 28, 2020 at 4:41 pm

Another wonderful blog article, Henneke! As I read it, I could see your words coming to life, inviting me to explore ways to incorporate more sensory language into my own writing. Thank you :).

April 28, 2020 at 7:31 pm

What a lovely comment. Thank you, Dana. Happy writing!

April 28, 2020 at 4:10 pm

Raven caws and nips Prairie dog defends in fits Dusty spring warriors

Fitting what I just noticed on a walk. Before reading this awesome post!

April 28, 2020 at 7:30 pm

I just came back from my walk in the rain. It’s so relaxing to listen to the raindrops falling on the leaves. A beautiful spring shower.

April 28, 2020 at 3:14 pm

Thank you for your book recommendations, Henneke. I don’t much fiction so I never know what book to choose. Thanks to you I have just finished American Kingpin and My Father, the Pornographer. I enjoyed them both. I will definitely have a look at Elif Shafak. Saying that I should really be getting on with your course!

April 28, 2020 at 4:01 pm

I’m glad you enjoyed those two books. Elif Shafak’s book is very different but perhaps even better.

And I hope you’re enjoying my copywriting course, too! 🙂

April 28, 2020 at 3:03 pm

I edit business books, not fiction. A few years back I was emailed by a lady who lives only 2km away, and she had written her first novel. It was as thick as Lord of the Rings. My inclination was to decline, but I contacted the person who had referred her. “Robert, don’t you know anything about art? She has been a landscape artist for over 40 years, roughly in the style of John Constable, and she has accumulated over 200 Awards.” Well, sorry, I knew Constable’s work but not this lady. I decided to have just one meeting with her. A short meeting. I had had approaches from first time fiction writers before, so I opened with my Killer Question: Why do you want to write? She replied, “I have been an artist for 40 years, and now I want to paint with words.” Well, that reply was a hundred times better than any other response anyone had ever given me! So when I saw Sharon’s tweet with ‘Paint Pictures with Words’ I simply had to jump right over and read your blog post here. It is excellent guidance on how to make words stream off the page and straight into the reader’s heart and/or brain. 🙂

April 28, 2020 at 3:59 pm

Great story! Thank you for sharing, Robert. It would be interesting to find out whether painters who write use more visual words than people who don’t paint.

April 28, 2020 at 2:33 pm

Love this… writing is like magic. So true. Thanks for inspiring me to create some magic today. So sorry I missed the Huddle!

April 28, 2020 at 3:58 pm

It does feel like magic to me, how we can connect with each other with our written words.

Thanks for stopping by, Margie. I hope you’re keeping well and safe.

April 28, 2020 at 2:28 pm

All I can think of right now is that I have an aubergine and some pickled okra in the fridge. Haha! So, yes, I think I was drawn in! And my main character, who is escaping his house MUST smell the rust of the old screen door. So I must edit. Thanks!

April 28, 2020 at 3:56 pm

Sometimes people tell me my writing makes them hungry 😉

April 28, 2020 at 7:01 pm

I’ve never experienced that before today! 🙂

April 28, 2020 at 2:01 pm

I quite enjoy the idea of using sensory descriptions. Although, it is decidedly more challenging to make use thereof when writing in the third person.

There are situations where it’s hard to use sensory descriptions but often you can still sneak in a sensory word or two, often metaphorically.

When writing her book Three Women , Lisa Taddeo would specifically ask interviewees for sensory details. Here’s an example on how her interviewing would go: “Maggie would say, ‘So then we started kissing.’ And I’d say, ‘Wait, back up. Where were you sitting? What did you smell like? What were you wearing?’ I knew how interior I wanted to get.” (from: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/06/lisa-taddeo-interview-three-women )

April 28, 2020 at 1:52 pm

Hi Henneke, Yes, we all find ourselves in some kind of quarantine, reading and writing allows us a way to not be confined. I enjoyed this post because it showed me the many places that we can move about without physically moving by using our 6th sense, “Motion”. David Holliday

April 28, 2020 at 3:50 pm

That reminds me of this quote of Ahmet Altan:

“I am writing this in a prison cell. But I am not in prison. I am a writer. I am neither where I am nor where I am not. You can imprison me but you cannot keep me here.”

(from his book I Will Never See the World Again: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer )

April 28, 2020 at 1:42 pm

Henneke, I love this, I will surely practice this with my future writing. I find if I go out for a walk it helps in the process. I can actually feel, smell and hear things better along my walk. I’ll try to pull a reader in through those senses now going forward.

I had trouble with the live session the other week. But now I will check out the replay – so glad you have it!

Thank you and stay well!

April 28, 2020 at 3:38 pm

Yes, I find that, too. Walking is great for sensory experiences. I even like walking in the dark, hearing the ducks quacking, looking up at the twinkling stars, smelling the freshly cut grass.

I’m sorry that you had trouble with the live session last week. Sometimes, browser settings can interfere. If you struggle with the replay, try a different browser.

April 28, 2020 at 12:54 pm

I like the cat brushing against my legs 😉 I do not care much for smell and I always skip over descriptions of smell. Interesting, huh. I do love cats, though.

Thinking about cliffhangers: I just finished reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. It keeps you reading allright, because the cliffhangers drive you on and on, but really, it is quite a distateful book. Ethically. I wonder how I got to the last of the 850 pages!

April 28, 2020 at 1:01 pm

Interesting point about smell. I find that smells can evoke some of my strongest memories. When I think of living in Hong Kong, I think of all the different smells first before thinking of the sound of the traffic, the suffocating feeling of the humid air, and the sights of the harbor. And strangely enough, I don’t consider myself to have a particular good sense of smell. For years, I smelled very little as I had a chronic cold. It has improved over recent years.

It sounds like I don’t need to add Outlander to my reading list 🙂

April 28, 2020 at 1:47 pm

I know smell can bring back memories extremely strongly and fast. It sometimes does. And yet it holds little interest for me 😉 I don’t really care for descriptions of food, either.

Never do I read a description of a bar of chocolate that makes me want to go looking for my own in the fridge.

Sex scenes, however, are hard to ignore. I wonder if anyone has ever done any research into this. I do know about the mirror neurons etc.. but do the neurons mirror all of the senses in the same amount?

April 28, 2020 at 3:47 pm

I’m the opposite of you. I like reading good food descriptions but I always skip sex scenes.

I imagine some differences may be hard-wired, but our brains are also remarkably adaptable so people who for instance lose their sight may develop stronger sense of hearing or touch. The late Oliver Sacks wrote a great article about that: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/opinion/01sacks.html

April 28, 2020 at 4:20 pm

He he ? I am not saying I prefer the sex scenes. Just that they are harder to ignore.

I do not read Oliver Sacks. Ever.

April 28, 2020 at 12:50 pm

Lovely, Henneke! A breath of fresh air as always, and always useful. Thank you too for the Writing Huddle last week. You and Sharon brought together writers from all over the world!

April 28, 2020 at 12:52 pm

Thank you so much for joining the Writing Huddle last week. I found it a humbling experience to be writing together with so many across the whole world.

April 28, 2020 at 12:28 pm

Theme for me is action verbs and PRESENT tense. First blush impression. You give so much so often as I wave away the remaining hairs on my self-inflicted shiny bald pate!

So there. I know I can do this, thanks to you.

April 28, 2020 at 12:40 pm

Yes, present tense is a good suggestion, too, because that makes it easier to be present while the story is developing.

The first draft of my opening paragraph was initially in the past tense but I changed it to the present tense. It feels better.

Thank you, Stephen. I appreciate your support.

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What Is Imagery? A Complete Guide

General Education

A literary device is a technique a writer uses to convey ideas and messages to their readers. That means that as readers, we need to understand and use literary devices to fully understand a work’s major themes!

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at how to use imagery to analyze a text. We’ll start by giving you the imagery definition before talking about why it’s an important tool for analyzing a text. Then we’ll walk you through some imagery examples in poetry and fiction and show you exactly how to analyze the imagery in each.

By the end of this article, you’ll be able to talk about imagery in literature like a pro, so let’s get started.

What Is Imagery? Definition and Explanation

Have you ever read a book that makes you feel like you’re seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting the same thing as the character you’re reading about? (We had that experience the first time Harry Potter tries butterbeer in Hogsmeade .) If you have, you can thank imagery for that experience!

Imagery is the act of using language to create images in the reader’s mind . Writers use descriptive words and phrases to help the reader feel like they’re...well, wherever the writer wants them to be! Basically, the writer is trying to create a “mental image” for the reader through the words they choose. Here’s how one of the greatest horror writers of all time, Stephen King , describes imagery :

Imagery does not occur on the writer’s page; it occurs in the reader’s mind. To describe everything is to supply a photograph in words; to indicate the points which seem the most vivid and important to you, the writer, is to allow the reader to flesh out your sketch into a portrait.

In other words: you can think of imagery as painting with words in order to fuel the reader’s imagination!

An easy way to spot imagery in a text is to pay attention to words, phrases, and sentences that connect with your five senses (sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound). That’s because writers know that in order to capture a reader’s attention, they need to engage with them mentally, physically, and emotionally.

Since imagery is designed to connect a reader to a text, it’s one of the most powerful tools a writer has to communicate their themes and messages.

The 2 Types of Imagery

Any time a writer engages a reader’s senses, they’re using imagery...which means imagery is a really broad literary device. In general, however , imagery fits into two big categories: literal and figurative.

Literal Imagery: Examples and Explanation

With literal imagery, a writer is literally describing things to the reader. (Pretty straightforward, huh?)

Writers often use literal imagery to describe the setting, characters, and situation for a reader. Literal imagery helps the reader picture where characters are, understand what characters are doing, and even foreshadow what might happen next. (For example, if the character is in a dark, dirty alley, they’re probably in a more dangerous situation than if the character is skipping through a field of daisies.)

Let’s take a look at an example of literal imagery from Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park so you can see what we mean. In this scene, Dr. Alan Grant, Lex Murphy, and Tim Murphy are trying to hide from a tyrannosaurus rex:

The tyrannosaur was still looking downstream, its back turned to them. They hurried along the path to the waterfall, and had almost moved behind the sheet of falling water when Grant saw the tyrannosaur turn. Then they were completely behind the waterfall, and Grant was unable to see out through the silver sheet.

Now that you’ve read this passage, close your eyes and picture the scene. You’re probably picturing a giant waterfall, a hungry tyrannosaurus rex, and a lot of danger, right? That’s because the literal imagery in this passage paints a very specific, literal picture that helps you imagine what’s happening in this moment!

Magic, right? Not quite. Imagery works because the writer uses descriptive words and phrases to help paint a picture. Let’s take a look at the first few lines again and pick out some of the descriptive language that helps shape the scene:  

They were closer to the waterfall now, the roar much louder. The rocks became slippery, the path muddy. There was a constant hanging mist. It was like moving through a cloud.

These lines are almost exclusively description, and Crichton uses phrases like “rocks became slippery” and “constant hanging mist” to help you imagine exactly what’s happening. A good way to pick out literal imagery is to look for nouns, then see how they’re described. For example, the noun “waterfall” is described as having a “roar” that gets “louder” the closer the characters get!

From an analysis perspective, these literal images all work together to help build the mood , or tone , of the scene. In this case, the imagery of the scene contributes to its tense and suspenseful tone. The environment is treacherous--not only are the rocks slick, but the characters have trouble seeing through the mist and water. One false move, and they’ll be a tasty snack for a hungry dinosaur!

  Use this picture as inspiration for finding connotation! (This will all make sense in a second.)

Figurative Imagery: Examples and Explanation  

Unlike literal imagery, figurative imagery uses on the non-literal--or metaphorical--meaning of words to paint a picture for the reader. Almost all words have two meanings: their denotation and connotation. The denotation of a word is its literal, dictionary definition. Figurative imagery, on the other hand, relies on the connotation —or implied meaning—of words and phrases to help shape a text’s themes and ideas.

To see how figurative imagery works, let’s look at the first line of Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” where the speaker is describing his lady love:  

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;

Okay. Let’s zero in on the word “sun” here. According to Merriam-Webster, the literal definition of the word “sun” is “the luminous celestial body around which the earth and other planets revolve, from which they receive heat and light, which is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium.” But the speaker doesn’t literally mean that his mistress’ eyes aren’t like a ball of gas!

So what does he mean? To figure this out, let’s look at the figurative imagery here. Take a minute and think of some of the implied or metaphorical meanings of the word “sun.” The word might make you think of warmth and happiness. It also might make you think of other images like burning, blazing, or fiery brightness.

With this figurative imagery in mind, this line is better read as “my mistress’s eyes aren’t bright, warm, or happy.” Not only does figurative imagery help this line make more sense, it also clues readers into the message of the poem: that you can recognize someone’s faults and still love them and find them beautiful.

One more quick note: because you’re a savvy reader , you’ve probably realized that this line from Shakespeare is also a metaphor , which is a comparison between two seemingly unrelated objects (in this case, “eyes” and “sun”). Writers often use other literary devices like metaphor, simile, and personification to help create vivid imagery for the reader. So don’t be surprised if you see imagery overlapping with other literary techniques!

Can an Example of Imagery be Both Literal and Figurative at the Same Time?

Absolutely! In fact, it’s quite common to see writers use literal and figurative imagery simultaneously. Take the first stanza of William Wordsworth’s poem, “Daffodils” :

That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

This stanza combines literal and figurative imagery. Literally, the images in this stanza help us see the speaker wandering around alone until he stumbles upon a patch of daffodils that are growing by a lake. This imagery is important to understanding Wordsworth’s poetry, which often explores the relationship between nature and man.  

The figurative imagery helps us learn a little more about the speaker, who’s an outsider. We can infer this because of the imagery he gives us; he imagines himself as a cloud floating over everything, able to see what’s going on but unable to participate. The daffodils, on the other hand, represent society. The imagery here is happy (the daffodils are “golden” and “dancing”), which is how the speaker views society as someone on the outside looking in.

 Imagery in Poetry: “Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

Now that you know more about imagery, let’s look at a poem that uses imagery to portray its major themes:

That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard - And sore must be the storm - That could abash the little Bird That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land - And on the strangest Sea - Yet - never - in Extremity, It asked a crumb - of me.

Imagery can make something abstract, like an emotion or theory, seem more concrete and tangible to the reader. By using imagery, writers can evoke the feeling they want to talk about in their readers...and by making their readers feel, writers can also help readers connect to the messages in their work.

In this example, Emily Dickinson takes the abstract idea of “hope” and compares it to a bird. Dickinson paints images of hope doing all the same things a bird does: it “perches,” “sings,” and keeps “so many warm” with its feathers. And despite all these gifts, hope never “asked a crumb” of anything in return. By using imagery to take an abstract idea (hope) and make it concrete (a bird), Dickinson helps readers understand the nature of hope. For Dickinson, hope is something that costs little to have and yet offers us comfort in all of life’s toughest situations.

Imagery in Fiction: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Imagery can be an equally powerful tool for fiction writers, too. In Dracula, Bram Stoker uses imagery to drive home the horror of the novel. Let’s take a look at one particularly stand-out scene, where Arthur Holmwood has to kill his former fiancee, Lucy Westenra, who has been turned into a vampire:

Remember how we talked about how imagery can set a tone or mood? That’s certainly the case here. Lucy is visually described not as a woman but as a “thing,” and the “blood-curdling screech” she lets out is a great example of how auditory imagery--or the sound of a scene--can contribute to its overall effect. (In this case, it amps up the horror of a once-delicate Englishwoman being transformed into a bloodthirsty beast.) It's the imagery associated with Lucy that shows readers how vicious and animalistic she’s become, which is no surprise: she’s joined Dracula’s army of the undead.

Now, take a look at the imagery surrounding Arthur, Lucy’s former fiancee, and see how it compares to Lucy’s description. Even as he’s killing Lucy, Arthur is described as “a figure of Thor”--meaning he’s strong, heroic, and good with a hammer. Stoker specifically says Arthur is “untrembling” in his task; despite its grisly nature, his steadiness showcases his commitment to protecting his country from the vampire threat...even when it means driving a stake in his lover’s heart. Additionally, his face has the “shine” of duty, which is a nod to the glowing, angelic halos of angels. Arthur’s bravery and light stands in contrast to Lucy’s dark, demonic nature, and Stoker specifically uses imagery to show readers how good can triumph over evil.

3 Questions to Ask When Analyzing Imagery

These examples have shown you how to find and analyze imagery, but you’ll have to do this all by yourself when you take the AP Literature exam. But don’t worry--now that you’re an expert, finding and analyzing imagery will be a breeze! But just in case you get stuck, here are three questions you can ask yourself to help you better analyze imagery in literature and poetry.

Question 1: What Did I Imagine While I Was Reading?  

The hardest part about analyzing imagery is finding it in the first place. Like we mentioned earlier, a good way to do this is to look for nouns and search for words that describe them. Then you can start asking yourself if those descriptions are figurative imagery (i.e., do those words have any implied or metaphorical meaning).

But when you’re crunched for time, you can go back to the tried-and-true method of using your imagination. Which parts of the text made you picture something in your mind? Since imagery is designed to spark your imagination, there’s a great chance that section contains some sort of imagery!

Question 2: What Does the Imagery Reveal About the Situation?

This question helps you get to the meat-and-potatoes of your analysis really quickly. Once you find a piece of imagery, ask yourself what it’s showing you . It could be describing an important setting, plot point, or character. Make sure you’re asking yourself if there’s figurative imagery at work, too.

If you’re struggling here, you can always go back to the “mental picture” we talked about with the first question. What do you see in that image? There’s a good chance that whatever you’re imagining matters in some way. Once you have that image in your mind, you can start to ask yourself why that particular image is important.

Here’s what we mean: think about the Jurassic Park example we talked about earlier. The imagery there tells us some literal things about what’s happening in the scene, but it also adds to the danger and suspense of the main characters’ predicament. The same can be said for the excerpt from “Daffodils,” only instead of revealing a plot point, the imagery gives readers important insight into the narrator of the poem.

Question 3: How Does the Imagery Affect the Mood of the Text?

Once you find a good piece of imagery, ask yourself how it makes you feel. Is it hopeful? Scary? Depressed? Angry? The feelings associated with the imagery in a work can often reveal the theme of a text.

Take Emily Dickinson’s poem. What feelings are associated with the imagery surrounding “hope”? Well, birds are tame and delicate, and the bird Dickinson describes sings sweetly through life’s fierce storms. Hope is clearly a reassuring, gentle, uplifting thing. By asking yourself why Dickinson thinks hope is good, you can start to figure out some of the messages of the poem!

What's Next?

Test out your new-found imagery chops by analyzing a poem on your own! We think that Dylan Thomas’ “Do not go gentle into that good night” is a great place to start. Y ou can find the full text of the poem, as well as additional analysis, here .

There’s more to literary analysis than just knowing your way around imagery! Make sure you’re familiar with the most important literary devices, like personification, before you head into your AP test.

There are two parts to the AP Literature test: the multiple choice section and the essay section. Some students worry about the written portion of the test so much that they forget to study for the multiple choice questions! Don’t let this be your situation. Make sure you’re preparing for the whole test by reading through this guide to mastering the AP Literature exam’s multiple choice portion, too .

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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What is Imagery — Definition & Examples in Literature & Poetry

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D escribing sensory experiences through the medium of writing and text can be difficult. By enlisting the use of imagery, writers are able to vividly describe experiences, actions, characters, and places through written language. What is imagery exactly. How is imagery in poetry and literature used? In this article, we’ll take a look at the imagery definition, seven different types of imagery and how each can be used to further immerse a reader into the work of a writer. 

Imagery definition

First, let’s define imagery.

Although there are several types of imagery, they all generally serve a similar function. To better understand the function of imagery in poetry and literature and how it can be achieved through various other literary devices, let’s take a look at the imagery definition. 

IMAGERY DEFINITION

What is imagery.

Imagery is a literary device used in poetry, novels, and other writing that uses vivid description that appeals to a readers’ senses to create an image or idea in their head. Through language, imagery does not only paint a picture, but aims to portray the sensational and emotional experience within text. 

Imagery can improve a reader’s experience of the text by immersing them more deeply by appealing to their senses. Imagery in writing can aim at a reader’s sense of taste, smell, touch, hearing, or sight through vivid descriptions. Imagery can be created using other literary devices like similes, metaphors, or onomatopoeia. 

What is imagery used for?

• Establishing a world or setting
• Creating empathy for a character’s experience
• Immersing a character into a situation

There are seven different types of imagery that writer’s use. All are in one way or another dependent on the reader’s senses. Let’s take a look at the types of imagery that are most commonly used in literature. 

What is imagery in poetry

1. visual imagery.

Visual imagery is most likely what people think of when they hear the term imagery. It uses qualities of how something looks visually to best create an image in the reader’s head. These visual qualities can be shapes, color, light, shadow, or even patterns. 

It is one of the most common types of imagery as it allows readers to better describe the world and characters of a novel or poem. Visual imagery is often used in screenplays when first introducing characters. Take a look at how Quentin Tarantino uses this type of imagery to introduce characters and places in the Pulp Fiction screenplay .

Pulp Fiction screenplay  •  Imagery examples

Visual imagery is often achieved through the use of other literary devices like metaphors and similes . To say a woman looks like Helen of Troy is both imagery, a simile, and an allusion. 

It can be frequently found in screenplays when a character is first introduced. 

Related Posts

• Read More: What is a Simile? Definition and Examples →
• Read More: How to Write a Fight Scene in a Screenplay →
• FREE: Write and create professionally formatted screenplays →

What’s imagery used for?

2. auditory imagery.

Our next type of imagery is auditory imagery. This type of imagery appeals to a reader’s sense of hearing. Creating an auditory experience through text can be difficult. But it can also be necessary for a story or plot. For example, the sound of war can be necessary to immerse the reader into a war novel. This may be used to describe gunfire, explosions, screams, and helicopters. 

Let’s take a look at William Shakespeare’s Macbeth , auditory imagery is used for a physical action that affects the actions of the characters. 

Macbeth - Imagery examples

Auditory imagery.

“Here’s a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of

hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. Knock

Knock, knock, knock, knock! Who’s there, i’ the name of

Belzebub? Here’s a farmer that hanged himself on th’

expectation of plenty. Come in time! Have napkins

enow about you; here you’ll sweat for’t. Knock

Knock, knock! Who’s there, in th’ other devil’s name?”

As you can see from this example, writers will also enlist the use of onomatopoeia to create the actual sound of an action or effect through text. This can make reading a story more experiential. 

What does imagery mean?

3. gustatory imagery.

Gustatory imagery is a type of imagery that aims at a reader’s sense of taste. This would most commonly be used to describe food as a character eats it. A great example of this can be found in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. As the Queen creates Turkish Delight for Edmund, C.S. Lewis uses gustatory imagery to describe its taste.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Imagery examples

Gustatory imagery.

“The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight. Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious. He was quite warm now, and very comfortable.”

Describing food as sweet, salty, or even spicy can immerse a reader further into a character’s simple action of eating. Gustatory imagery can be incredibly effective when describing unpleasant tastes as well. 

4. Olfactory Imagery

Olfactory imagery is used when writers’ want to appeal to a reader’s sense of smell. Olfactory imagery is a great way to better describe both what a character is experiencing as well as the world of the novel, poem, or other writing. 

The smell of fresh rain, smoke from a fire, or gasoline can be described through olfactory imagery. A great example of this can be found in the novel The Dead Path by Stephen M. Irwin. Note the comparisons Irwin used to create the olfactory imagery and paint a picture of the smell. 

The Death Path - What is imagery in literature?

Olfactory imagery.

“But a smell shivered him awake.

It was a scent as old as the world. It was a hundred aromas of a thousand places. It was the tang of pine needles. It was the musk of sex. It was the muscular rot of mushrooms. It was the spice of oak. Meaty and redolent of soil and bark and herb. It was bats and husks and burrows and moss. It was solid and alive - so alive! And it was close.”

Olfactory imagery can also be used in a screenplay as a plot point and to suggest to actor’s what they are smelling and how they are reacting.

5. Tactile Imagery

To create the sensory experience of touch through text, writers utilize tactile imagery. This type of imagery can be used to describe how something feels such as texture, temperature, wetness, dryness, etc. 

In Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger , Camus uses this type of imagery to describe the heat of the sun pressing down on a man at the beach. 

The Stranger - What is imagery in literature?

Tactile imagery.

“Seeing the rows of cypress trees leading up to the hills next to the sky, and the houses standing out here and there against that red and green earth, I was able to understand Maman better. Evenings in that part of the country must have been a kind of sad relief. But today, with the sun bearing down, making the whole landscape shimmer with heat, it was inhuman and oppressive.”

As you can see from this example, this can be tremendously effective when characters are undergoing some type of turmoil. Tactile imagery appeals to a reader’s sense of touch and allows them to better empathize with a character. 

• Read More: Ultimate guide to Literary Devices →
• Read More: What is a Motif? Definition and Examples →

Kinesthetic imagery definition

6. kinesthetic imagery.

Kinesthetic imagery is used to describe the sensory experience of motion. Speed, slowness, falling, or even fighting can be written with kinesthetic imagery. 

In the world of screenwriting, kinesthetic imagery is perhaps most important in the genre of action films. How else can you write an epic fight scene other than by using kinesthetic imagery to paint the picture? 

In our breakdown of one of the many epic fight scenes in John Wick , we take a look at how kinesthetic imagery can tell the story of action on the page. Using words like “slam” and “snap” create the imagery of the fight scene. 

What is Imagery in Fight scenes?  •   Subscribe on YouTube

Kinesthetic imagery is also great when writing about topics like sports, driving, and other intense action. 

Organic imagery meaning

7. organic imagery.

Last, but not least on our list is organic imagery. Organic imagery appeals to the most primitive sensations in the human experience such as hunger, fatigue, fear and even emotion. 

It can be quite difficult to describe the emotions of a sorrowful character or desperate character. But organic imagery aims to do just that. When done effectively, organic imagery can be the best tool to move a reader to tears of either joy or sadness. 

Explore more literary devices

Imagery is just one of many literary devices and types of figurative language , including metaphor , juxtaposition , and symbolism . If you're a writer and want to develop your craft fully, do yourself a favor and continue this exploration. The next article on literary devices is a gateway to many of these tools that help add substance and style to any type of written work.

Up Next: Literary Devices Index →

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What is Imagery? || Definition & Examples

"what is imagery" a guide for english essays.

View the full series: The Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms

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What is Imagery? Transcript (English and Spanish Subtitles Available, Click HERE for Spanish Transcript.)

By Raymond Malewitz , Oregon State University Associate Professor of American Literature

24 April 2019

As human beings, we understand the world through our senses—what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we taste, and what we touch.  To represent this process in their literary works, storytellers and poets use vivid language designed to appeal to these senses.  This language is called imagery.   Let me give you one example.

In Kate Chopin’s short story “The Story of an Hour,” a woman named Mrs. Mallard is told that her husband has just been killed in a railroad accident.  After retreating to her room to grieve, she looks out her window.  Chopin writes:

"She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with new spring life.  The delicious breath of rain was in the air.  In the street below a peddler was crying his wares.  The notes of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves."

imagery_kate_chopin_the_story_of_an_hour.jpg

In this passage, Chopin’s imagery appeals to a variety of senses: the sight of quivering trees, the smell of rain, the sound of twittering sparrows, and so on.

As this passage suggests, imagery often does more than simply present sensory impressions of the world: it also conveys tone , or the attitude of a character or narrator towards a given subject.  By concentrating on what Mrs. Mallard experiences at this moment-- quivering trees, singing birds, and smells of rain –Chopin’s narrator allows readers to understand the complex way in which Mrs. Mallard views her husband’s death—as both a tragic event and a rebirth of sorts in which the spring imagery conveys the freedom she imagines beyond the confines of her marriage. 

Instead of telling us these thoughts through exposition or explanation, Chopin’s narrator shows us the worldview of her character and encourages us to interpret what this imagery means.  This difference is crucial for students interested using the term “imagery” in their literary essays.  Rather than writing that imagery is good or bad, vivid or dull, students should instead try to connect imagery to the thoughts of a character, narrator, or speaker. 

Want to cite this?

MLA Citation: Malewitz, Raymond. "What is Imagery?" Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, 24 Apr. 2019, Oregon State University, https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-imagery-definition-examples. Accessed [insert date].

Further Resources for Teachers

H.D.'s short poem "Oread" and Leslie Marmon Silko's short story "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" offer students two different good opportunities to practice linking imagery to the worldview of certain speaker. 

Writing Prompt #1: In H.D.'s poem, a forest nymph sees the waves of the sea as "pointed pines," which is a very strange metaphor. How does this imagery provide insight into ways that that creature experiences the world?

Writing Prompt #2: In Silko's story (which was published under the name Leslie Chapman), the fourth section drops into what might be called a "close" third-person aligned with the priest's perspective on the ritual he is performs. But instead of providing his actual thoughts, Silko chooses to present how he sees the world through detailed imagery.  What does this imagery convey about his thoughts on the ritual and why might Silko has chosen this oblique or indirect style to convey it?

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GCSE English Language 9-1 Creative Writing Sample Answer for a Story Titled “Alone”

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Other

Last updated

30 August 2024

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This digital file provides a sample answer to a GCSE English Language 9-1 creative writing task using the title “Alone.” The story delves into the emotions of solitude, showcasing a protagonist’s journey through feelings of isolation and the solace they find in the quiet of a night-time park. This well-crafted narrative captures the reader’s attention with vivid descriptions and relatable emotions, making it a perfect study tool for students aiming to excel in their English language exams.

Language Techniques Used in This Story:

Imagery: The story employs rich, descriptive language to paint a vivid picture of the setting, helping readers visualize the scenes and feel the protagonist’s emotions.

Personification: Elements of nature, such as the wind and shadows, are given human-like qualities to enhance the atmosphere and evoke a sense of unease.

Metaphor and Simile: Comparisons are used to deepen the emotional impact and create connections between the character’s feelings and their surroundings.

First-Person Narrative: The use of a first-person perspective allows readers to connect closely with the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings, making the story more engaging and personal.

Symbolism: Objects and settings within the story, such as the empty swing and darkened park, symbolize the protagonist’s inner feelings of loneliness and longing for connection.

Why This File is Perfect for Exam Preparation:

Exam-Focused Content: This sample answer aligns perfectly with the GCSE English Language 9-1 criteria, demonstrating how to effectively respond to a creative writing prompt.

Technique Breakdown: With an analysis of the language techniques used, students can learn how to incorporate similar strategies in their own writing to enhance their storytelling skills.

Inspiration and Guidance: By reading and analyzing this sample, students can gain inspiration for their own writing, understanding how to construct a compelling narrative and convey deep emotions.

Practice and Improvement: This file offers an excellent example of high-quality creative writing, providing a benchmark for students to aim for in their exam preparation.

Use this digital file to inspire your own writing, understand the key elements of a successful narrative and prepare effectively for your GCSE English Language exams.

This digital file is more than just a model; it’s a tool for success. It’s crafted to meet the highest standards of the GCSE English Language exam criteria, ensuring that you’re learning from a top-quality example. By analyzing and practicing with this model answer, you can improve your skills, enhance your understanding and boost your exam performance.

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Crafting an effective problem statement

Aug 31, 2024

Posted by: Regine Fe Arat

Crafting a clear and concise problem statement is an essential skill in project management. It’s a powerful tool that you can use for effective problem-solving as it guides teams toward innovative solutions and measurable outcomes.

Whether you’re a seasoned project manager or a newcomer to the field, being able to write problem statements can significantly enhance your ability to tackle complex challenges and drive meaningful change.

A problem statement concisely describes an issue or challenge that needs to be addressed. An effective problem statement frames the issue in a way that facilitates a deeper understanding and guides the problem-solving process.

At its core, a well-crafted problem statement should capture the essence of the challenge at hand, providing enough context for stakeholders to grasp the issue’s significance. It helps you find the most appropriate solution and ensures that all team members are aligned in their understanding of the problem’s scope and implications.

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll find out what problem statements are and what types you can use. You’ll also find practical examples and actionable tips to help you create impactful problem statements of your own.

What are the key components of a problem statement?

Here are the three key components of a problem statement:

The problem

You should clearly state the core issue or challenge to be addressed. This is the heart of your problem statement. Articulate it in a way that’s easy to understand and free from ambiguity.

The method used to solve the problem

While the problem statement itself shouldn’t propose specific solutions, it can outline the general approach or methodology you’ll use to address the issue. For example, you might mention the type of research, analysis or problem-solving techniques your team will employ.

The purpose, statement of objective and scope

This component outlines why addressing the problem is important and what the desired outcome looks like. It should clarify the goals of the problem-solving effort and define the boundaries of what you’ll address. This helps focus efforts and set clear expectations for what the project or initiative aims to achieve.

When to use a problem statement

A problem statement is a versatile tool that you can use across various scenarios in both professional and personal contexts. They are particularly valuable in the following cases:

• Initiating new projects: a problem statement helps define the project’s purpose and sets clear objectives from the outset.
• Addressing organizational challenges: it provides a structured approach to tackling complex issues within a company or team.
• Conducting research: researchers use problem statements to focus their investigations and define the scope of their studies.
• Presenting ideas to stakeholders: a well-formulated problem statement can effectively communicate the need for change or investment to decision-makers.
• Personal goal-setting: even in individual pursuits, problem statements can help clarify objectives and motivate action.

Types of problem statements

Understanding different types of problem statements can help you choose the best approach for your specific situation.

Let’s explore three common types:

The status quo problem statement

This type of problem statement focuses on the current state of affairs and highlights the gap between the existing situation and the desired outcome.

It’s particularly effective when you are addressing ongoing issues or systemic problems within an organization.

Example: “Our customer support team currently handles 150 tickets, on average, per day with a resolution time of 48 hours. This prolonged response time has led to a 15% decrease in customer satisfaction scores over the past quarter, potentially impacting our retention rates and brand reputation.”

Destination problem statement

A destination problem statement emphasizes the desired future state or goal.

It’s ideal for situations where you want to inspire change and motivate teams to work toward a specific vision.

Example: “We aim to create a seamless onboarding experience for new employees that reduces the time to full productivity from 12 to six weeks while increasing new hire satisfaction scores by 25% within the next fiscal year.”

The stakeholder problem statement

This type of problem statement focuses on the impact of an issue on specific individuals or groups.

It’s particularly useful when you need to highlight the human element of a problem and garner support for change.

Example: “Junior software developers in our organization report feeling overwhelmed and unsupported, with 60% expressing dissatisfaction with their professional growth opportunities. This has resulted in a 30% turnover rate among this group in the past year, leading to increased recruitment costs and knowledge loss.”

How to write a problem statement

Crafting an effective problem statement takes practice and attention to detail. Follow these steps to create impactful problem statements:

Understand the problem

Before putting pen to paper, invest time in thoroughly understanding the issue at hand. Gather data, conduct interviews with stakeholders and observe the problem in action if possible. This deep understanding will form the foundation of your problem statement.

Articulate the problem in simple, straightforward language. Avoid jargon or overly technical terms that might confuse readers. Your goal is to ensure that anyone reading the statement can quickly grasp the core issue.

Provide context

Include relevant background information that helps readers understand the problem’s significance. This might include historical data, industry benchmarks or organizational goals that the issue is affecting.

Identify the root cause

Dig deeper to uncover the underlying reasons for the problem. Avoid focusing on symptoms. Instead, strive to identify the fundamental issues that need to be addressed. Tools like the “5 whys” technique can be helpful in this process.

Be specific

Use concrete details and quantifiable metrics whenever possible. Instead of saying, “Customer satisfaction is low,” specify, “Customer satisfaction scores have dropped by 15% in the past quarter.” This precision helps create a clear picture of the problem’s scope and impact.

Use measurable criteria

Incorporate measurable elements that can be used to track progress and determine when the problem has been resolved. This might include specific metrics, timeframes or benchmarks.

Make it feasible

Ensure the problem statement describes an issue the organization can actually address. You’ll need to be realistic.

Consider your organization’s resources and constraints. While ambition is important, an overly broad or unattainable goal can be demotivating and unhelpful.

Avoid solution language

Resist the temptation to propose solutions in the problem statement. The goal is to clearly define the problem, not to prescribe how it should be solved. This approach encourages creative thinking and enables you and your team to consider a range of potential solutions.

Consider the audience

Tailor your problem statement to the intended audience. The level of detail and technical language may vary depending on whether you’re presenting to executives, team members or external stakeholders.

Seek feedback

Share your draft problem statement with colleagues or stakeholders to gather their input. Fresh perspectives can help identify blind spots or areas that need clarification.

Revise and refine

Refine your problem statement based on the feedback you receive. Don’t be afraid to go through multiple iterations to achieve the most clear and impactful statement possible.

Test for objectivity

Review your problem statement to ensure it remains objective and free from bias. Avoid language that assigns blame or makes assumptions about causes or solutions.

Challenges of writing a problem statement

While problem statements can be a powerful tool for problem-solving, you may face several common challenges when writing yours. Being aware of these pitfalls can help you avoid them and create more effective problem statements.

Making it too complicated and lacking detail

One of the most frequent issues in problem statement writing is finding the right balance between detail and clarity.

Oversimplifying the problem can lead to a statement that’s too vague to be actionable. On the other hand, including too much detail can obscure the core issue and make the statement difficult to understand.

To overcome this challenge, focus on the essential elements of the problem. Start with a clear, concise statement about the issue, then add only the most relevant contextual details. Use specific, measurable criteria to define the problem’s scope and impact, but avoid getting bogged down in excessive technical jargon or minute, unhelpful details.

Ignoring stakeholders’ perspectives

Another common pitfall is failing to consider the diverse perspectives of all the stakeholders the problem affects. This can result in a problem statement that doesn’t fully capture the issue’s complexity or fails to resonate with key decision-makers.

To address this challenge, make an effort to gather input from a wide range of stakeholders before finalizing your problem statement. This might include conducting interviews, surveys or focus groups with employees, customers, partners or other relevant parties.

Incorporate these diverse viewpoints into your problem statement to create a more comprehensive and compelling representation of the issue.

Misalignment with organizational goals

Sometimes, problem statements can be well-crafted but fail to align with broader organizational objectives. This misalignment can lead to wasted resources and efforts on issues that, while important, may not be critical to the company’s overall success.

To ensure your problem statement aligns with the organization’s goals, review your company’s mission statement, strategic plans and key performance indicators before you get started. Consider how the problem you’re addressing relates to these broader objectives.

If possible, explicitly link the problem and its potential resolution to specific goals or metrics in your statement.

Failing to review and revise

An effective problem statement often requires multiple iterations and refinements. Many project managers make the mistake of treating their first draft as the final version, missing opportunities to improve clarity, precision and impact.

To overcome this challenge:

• Build time for revision into your problem statement writing process.
• After crafting your initial draft, step away from it for a short period.
• Return with fresh eyes to critically evaluate and refine your statement.
• Share it with colleagues or mentors for feedback. Be open to making substantive changes based on their input.

The last card

Being able to write problem statements is a valuable skill that can significantly enhance your problem-solving capabilities and drive meaningful change within your organization. They enable you to set the stage for innovative solutions and improved processes – but to do this, you’ll need to clearly articulate challenges, provide context and focus on measurable outcomes.

A well-crafted problem statement is a powerful tool for aligning teams, securing resources and guiding decision-making. It’s the foundation for effective problem-solving strategies. As you get better at writing problem statements, you’ll find that complex challenges become more manageable and your ability to drive positive change increases.

At Pip Decks, we’re passionate about equipping professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to excel in their roles. Whether you’re looking to improve your problem-solving skills, enhance team collaboration or develop your leadership abilities, you’ll find the answers you need in our expert-written card decks.

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