The Understanding of Imagery

the poem- to look them up if necessary, and to think through all their meanings to feel their emotional impact. As literary work, poetry relatively used the language more compact than prose. For some people, poem seems too difficult. According to Mc. Laughlin, “poetry are difficult because the language used are precision and flair”. 6 Through the language poets want to make us as readers to explore how the language works. While Wordsworth defined poetry as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; Emily Dickinson said, If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry; and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing. But poetry, unlike prose, often has an underlying and over-arching purpose that goes beyond the literal. Poetry is evocative. It typically evokes in the reader an intense emotion: joy, sorrow, anger, catharsis, love. Alternatively, poetry has the ability to surprise the reader with an Ah Ha Experience, revelation, insight, further understanding of elemental truth and beauty. 7

B. The Understanding of Imagery

The use of imagery in poetry is essential for a comprehension of the overall meaning. Images are essentially word-pictures and they usually work by a method of 6 Thomas Mc. Laughlin, Literature: the Power of Language, New York Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Publisher, 1989, p.11 7 Mark Flanagan, http:contemporarylit.about.comcsliterarytermsgpoetry.htm accessed on Friday 26 marches 2010, 20:35 association. This means that the images are created by associations that we make as readers within the linguistic context of the text. For example, the word red immediately creates an image or picture of the color red in our minds. This color is associated or has connotations with other feelings or images, like anger, and this increases the depth of the poem. The important thing to remember is that the images are an instrument that the poet uses to express his or her intentions or feelings. Understanding the use of images means understanding the essential meaning of the poem. According to Perrine, imagery may be defined as the representation through language of sense experiences. Poetry appeals directly to our sense, of course, through its music and rhythms, which we actually her when it is read aloud. And but indirectly it appeals to our sense through imagery, the representation to the imagination of sense experience. 8 Imagery as a mental picture is more incidental to a poem than metaphors, symbols, and theme and they are often confused. An image is language use in such a way to help us to see, hear, feel, thing about or generally understand more clearly or vividly what is being said or the impression that the writer wishes to convey. An image in poetry refers to the words or the language a writer use to convey a concrete mental impression, which may be visual, creating a “picture” in the readers imagination, or sensory in others ways. Imagery is a type of language which creates a sense impression, represents an idea, and thus heightens expression. The poet often articulates his her insights 8 Laurence Perrine, Thomas R, Arp, 1988, Literature; structure, sound, and sense, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publisher, p.552 through image of figurative language. 9 The most common images include comparisons, such as simile and symbol that is used to represent something else. According to Mc. Laughlin in his book, literature: the power of language page 39, first an image is a reflection-not the thing itself, but a reproduction of its appearances in another form. Second, in popular usage an image is a false version of the self, intended for a public audience. In tradition literary usage the term image refer to a poem’s ability to evoke the experiences of the senses. Images in poems try to make readers feel as though they are in the scene that the poem describes. To imagine the imagery in such as a poem is not easy, they are two techniques to convey imagery in a poem. For the first, a poet or speaker must use a description. It describes an object like observation or ideas through words. The second, it can be used with the figure of speech. 10 Nevertheless, the readers that want to identify imagery, which is explicit in the text, they must be active and creative to reveal meaning because imagery can only be describe if the reader immersed emotionally. 9 The American Experience: Poetry, 1968, New York: The Macmillan Company, p.8 10 Siswantoro. 2002. Apresiasi Puisi-Puisi Sastra Inggris. Surakarta: Muhamadiyah University Press. P.57

C. The kind of imagery