Imagery is and will always be one of the most important components of any piece of literature. It not only creates a mental image of a scene which is essential to literature but, it also appeals to all of the human senses. Imagery can be described as language that evokes any physical sensation produced by one (or more) of the five senses. In literature, imagery is mainly accomplished by the use of figurative language. When the speaker uses figures of speech so that it creates more than the simple denotation of the words and due to this, the language must be understood in more than a literal way. Figures of speech, such as similes, metaphors and/or personification are the most common example of figurative language. The uses of figurative language in literature help establish the tone of the text. The speaker's disposition towards the subject matter and the audience is revealed by the choice and use of specific language.
Figurative language establishes a distinct mood of a text through the use of connective words. Without figurative language, a reader would not fully understand the scene or feeling of a text. In the poem "In a Station of the Metro", by Ezra Pound, figurative language is distinctly evident in the way the two lines contrast each other. A strong and evident metaphor is used to establish the concepts of figurative language. Even though a distinct connecting word is not used between the two lines, an assertion that two different, distinct things are referred to as being identical. The appearance of the crowd of faces is compared to wet petals on the black bough. Because the petals are wet, they are stuck together. This combined with the black color, does not allow any shadows or outlines to be present which makes it difficult to make a distinction between the individual petals. This creates a tone of how the speaker sees this crowd as one rather than individuals.
