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Hyperbole
Definition of Imagery
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert Frost's poem "After... read full definition
Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines... read full definition
Imagery
Explanation and Analysis—A War Chorus:
As the lieutenant heads to the hospital after being injured in battle, he pauses from afar and looks back at the ensuing fight. Crane uses imagery here to bring readers into the lieutenant’s experience, as seen in the following passage:
The wild thud of hoofs, the cries of the riders shouting blame and praise, menace and encouragement, and, last, the roar of the wheels, the slant of the glistening guns, brought the lieutenant to an intent pause. The battery swept in curves that stirred the heart; it made halts as dramatic as the crash of a wave on the rocks, and when it fled onward this aggregation of wheels, levers, motors had a beautiful unity, as if it were a missile. The sound of it was a war chorus that reached into the depths of man’s emotion.
Crane engages several different senses in this passage. By describing the “wild thud of hoofs,” “the cries of the riders,” and “the roar of the wheels”—referring to the sounds altogether as a “war chorus”—Crane helps readers to hear the scene. Likewise, his descriptions of “the slant of the glistening guns” and the battery that “swept in curves” and “made halts as dramatic as the crash of a wave on the rocks” help readers to see the scene. Finally, Crane notes that watching this scene “stirred the heart” of the lieutenant “reached into the depths” of his emotions, two details that help readers to emotionally feel what the man is feeling.
Crane uses all of this imagery to signal that this is a particularly important moment in the story. While the lieutenant felt confused and attacked at the frontlines of the battle, distance has helped him to see the beauty and splendor of war. This moment is both an indictment of people who glorify war from afar (given all of the suffering that soldiers are enduring on the frontlines) and a nod to the fact that distance does offer some real perspective.
Related Themes:
