Woooohoooo Imagery

"Poems are 'imaginary gardens with real toads in them'." According to Oliver, imagery is the basis of making clear to the reader the overall purpose and intent of a poem. Without imagery in a poem, the tenderness and authenticity of a poem with imagery would not be present. In order to achieve imagery, says Oliver, one must include a representative image that can clearly be formed in a reader's mind. This means that instead of using only descriptive language, one must also incorporate figurative language. Probably the most interesting piece of information I found in this chapter is that "apple" is different from "the apple" or "an apple" being that when using "the" or "an" the reader is actually able to picture an apple, but saying just "apple" makes the reader visualize a number of apples, making the image blurry and seemingly unimportant. Along with her descriptions of how to accurately employ figurative language, Oliver also describes poetic devices, including personification and allusion. When describing personification, Oliver states that in order to successfully incorporate it in a poem, the author must make sure that the inanimate object makes sense. When describing allusion, Oliver includes how using allusion tends to describe the value of which an object of a poetic piece holds and what value it has within the poem itself. Overall, I've got to say that I am pretty impressed with the way Oliver has been describing how to successfully write poetry. Her points are so lucid and her tone is pretty laid-back, making the book easier and more enjoyable to read.