Using the senses in Poetry

As poets, we are especially aware of the senses and how they can make writing vivid. The senses should work to transport our readers into our world and bring the poem to life.

Reading general descriptions takes the information you read, via the normal reading mechanism, the visual cortex that helps us perceive letters and words. The phonological cortex that maps the sounds to letters. The semantic cortex that stores word meanings, and the syntactic cortex, that helps us understand the rules and structure of lines or sentences. Each part of the brain works in concert by forming efficient and fast pathways as we read.

Information from the senses passes through the sensory register to immediate memory and then on to working memory for conscious processing. If you attach sense and meaning in the reading, it is likely to be stored and processed more meaningfully. This concept often determines how much attention the reader will give to new information.Therefore its better not to simply tell your reader how you feel what you see hear or what is going on, but show them by vivid description and imagery, incorporating some sense bound imagery.

Do not tell readers that “ grass is green” or “ the sky is blue” unless that adds something to the meaning or emotion of the piece. You waste words and potentially alienate your reader. Don’t state the obvious. Incorporate specific sense bound information that will assist the reader to dive into meaning so they sit on there narratosshoulder. Authors need imagery to create rich, livable experiences using the senses. Imagery is a doorway into the world It allows the reader to see, smell, hear, taste, and feel everything that happens in a poem or a story in an immersive way. You will highlight the important sensory information in your imagery, you are the painter for your reader.

If you consider where you are right now, as you’re reading this. There are many different sensory experiences vying for your attention, but your brain filters those senses out because they’re not important. You might be ignoring the sounds of your neighbors and passing traffic, or the context of music in the room, or the feeling of your chair pressing into your body. Imagery in literature performs the same function: it highlights the most important sensory information that the reader needs to engage with. Great imagery examples set the stage for great storytelling, goading the reader into the world of the piece. There are seven distinct types of imagery:• Visual• Auditory.• Olfactory• Gustatory.• Tactile.• Kinesthetic. Organic .

Sensory images trigger an emotional reaction in the reader. They also suggest and create the context for understanding the rest of the poem. For example, a dark and stormy afternoon could set the backdrop of conflict. A conversation between two friends on a dark windswept shore may foreshadow trouble or treachery. If the same conversation took place on a sunny day during a walk in a park, the reader comes away with a totally different understanding. Our most prolific sense is usually our vision and we use it in description all the time but it’s good to use at least one other sense in a short poem. Choose the best for context, it is unrealistic in short poems to incorporate all the senses without overwhelming the reader.

Visual imagery appeals to the sense of sight and plays the largest role in imagery in literature. It describes what a scene or character looks like. For instance:“The dark blue and purple hues of twilight coil like oil in the still water are highlighted by the glint of fire from the disappearing sunk.”

The reader can imagine a still ocean or lake scene at twilight as if they were standing on the edge of the water themselves.

Further examples of visual imagery in poetry.

“A field of cotton—as if the moon had flowered.”Matsuo Bashō, from Basho: The Complete Haiku, translated by Jane Reichhold

In poetry, as in prose, images are often juxtaposed next to feelings, creating a sensory and emotive experience. The language that each form uses to create those experiences is similar, but the poetic form encourages an economy of language, making imagery in poetry more concise.