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Exercises

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Summary:

This section covers images as they appear in poetry and covers related terminology, definitions and origins of images, uses of images, and several exercises.

Exercises

Breadbasket of Images

  1. Go outside and find 5 objects and describe them briefly in your notebook.
  2. Take one of the five objects and add something that makes it "intellectual," something that shows that it is being observed by a thinking person. Do not just describe the thing; that is not image. Think of it as augmenting the object with your thoughts.
  3. Take the same object and find a way to get something emotional into it. Again, raw description is not the key here; make it something that evokes an emotional response in you about the object.
  4. Repeat with all five objects.

The Poet as Robber Baron

  1. Find three images from three different poems that you really admire.
  2. Replace the key element of each of the images with a new word. i.e.: if the key element of the image is "sun," try making it "whiffleball."
  3. Now take the emotional and intellectual elements of the image and change them slightly to fit the word.
  4. Using all three images, write a short poem where all three images come into play with each other.