Another element of style that writers have at their disposal is imagery, a term that refers to the ways that writers try to appeal to the reader’s senses by evoking sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. Keep in mind that imagery can be both literal and figurative.
literal imagery: The wind shook the trees.
figurative imagery: The trees danced with the wind.
Writers communicate the worlds they create through imagery; they want their readers to feel as if they are right there in the middle of the worlds, not just reading about them.
Look at the opening lines of the poem “Winter Place” by Genny Lim, and notice how Lim uses both figurative language, allusions in particular, and imagery to describe a setting that is dismal and depressing:
I live in this foghorn moon of a fishhole alley
Every night there’s a derelict dog, mangy with a cataract stare
Lickin’ the wounds of old North Beach
Leftovers, fish ’n chips, upchucked cheesesteak, antipasti
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Blasted against the antiseptic glare of trendy restaurants,
glossy Gelatos
Where MTV couples glide frozenly by
Catching in the corners of their ray-
Their store-