The View From Above: Invention using Imagery
Purpose: This is an exercise on effectively using images in poetry and prose, and it accompanies Philip Cory Cloud's “Home.”
Description: This exercise will instruct students in the composition of insightful imagery to include in either prose or poetry. Additionally, it will evolve into a discussion on the nature of imagery and how it can lead to inventive, effective writing. Having the students begin to use vivid images will expand the way they can use words to engage the reader, showing them that imagery can function as a widow through which the reader can understand their work. This exercise demonstrates that including such imagery allows the reader to share the author’s viewpoint. In “Trolley Square,” the images function as a porthole into not only the view of the square and its inhabitants but also into the emotional realm of its narrator. Also, it may help to discuss how the use of imagery can make a plain or stale noun fresh, vivid, and new.
Suggested Time: 35-50 minutes
Procedure:
Before class, prepare a list of non-place-specific nouns in the poem (i.e. “shingles,” “steel pipes,” “ceiling,” and “pizza shop,” but not “Trolley Square” as students may not be familiar with such a term) for group distribution. Print this list and cut it into strips—two or more nouns per strip should work nicely. Also, you could have the students bring in the current draft of their essay/poem.
Ask the students to think of a place that is close to them and describe it in great detail; have a few students share their free write, discussing images used to convey this place to the audience.
After forming groups of 3–5, distribute the poem “Home” and one strip of nouns to each group. Ask the groups to find their pre-selected nouns in the poem and have them discuss, briefly, how the author approached this. How does the image work? Is metaphor present? Simile? Are the images used in conjunction with the noun concrete or abstract?
Have each student make a series of lists, using the chosen nouns as a title for each. Then, ask them to brainstorm imagery in connection with each noun: these should include metaphors and similes, concrete images and abstract ones. They should come up with five to seven of these for each list. It may help to direct the students to create an image for each sense.
Prompt each group to compare the imagery and description that each member has devised. Then, have them choose which they believe are the most effective images and discuss why they work so well. Ask the groups to present the product of this exercise (the images they found most interesting) to the class.
After disbanding the groups, invite each student to extract from their previous free write, or from their current essay/poem draft, three nouns that could benefit from a more expressive image-base. Prompt them to compose, on an individual basis, a similar list for each noun—they should select the most effective and consider applying these to their existing draft.