29/09/2017 by axonite
“Why is the imagery there?” someone asked me this week.
To ask this question is perhaps indicative of thinking about the poem or lyrical prose passage too much and (to paraphrase Charlie Chaplin) feeling it too little. One might as well say, “what is the purpose of poetry?” (Sadly, one joyless Mr Spock type Science teacher once did, before going on to declare that it “serves no function”! It seemed that for him love, humour and enjoyment in general were illogical and thus “irrelevant, captain”).
Figurative language is essentially poetic language. When we read lyrical passages in works such as Laurie Lee’s As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, we need to ‘experience’ it with our senses. What Lee does is share with us, first and foremost, the feeling of being in those ‘exotic’ places, so we can understand on an emotional level something of what it felt like for him to have that peculiarly paradoxical mix of revulsion and attraction, of culture shock and exoticism. Imagery hits us in our hearts. We are intended to respond to it as human beings – yes, we may think about it, but feelings precede thoughts in this case.
Category IGCSE, Novels, Poetry, Prose | Tags: IB,igcse,KS3,Language,lyricism,poetry | No Comments
