Poets use figurative or descriptive language in a deliberate attempt to help the reader to see things in a new way. Discuss the use of imagery in at least three of the poems you have studied this semester, indicating how the poet uses imagery to propel the reader's attention to a particular understanding.
Answer:.
Through the use of figurative imagery and descriptive language, poets are able to manipulate the minds of their audience, thus providing a vivid message propelling the reader's attention to a particular understanding, allowing them to see things in a new way. .
Poetry allows the reader to become oblivious to the obvious, thus allowing them to see things in a much simpler and yet extraordinary way. The greatest example of this is Andrea Whitaker's poem, "World". Through the use of epiphany, the revealing of new revelations, and metaphors, "A jewel on the edge of oblivion", and "a single oasis in a desert of eternity", the poet invokes the reader to see the Earth as a precious "gem of life", rather than the obvious, which is a planet in space. Moreover, when combined with the chimera of descriptive language and figurative imagery, as in the line: "suspended by a fragile thread of gravity!" the poet conjures a vivid picture that allows the reader to understand that the Earth is not as immense and indestructible as it may seem, instead, it teaches the reader that the Earth is delicate and fragile.
Poetry enraptures people's passion, thus allowing them to understand that everything has a moral. The greatest example of this is in William Wordsworth's sonnet, "The World Is Too Much With Us". The use of personification in the lines, "The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon", and, "The winds that will be howling at all hours", compels the reader to realise that there is life within nature. By comparing the environment with the epiphany in the line: "And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers", the reader is able to realise that the environment is slowly dying, just like flowers once they are picked.
