Types of Imagery in Literature

Music Elements

• Pitch refers to the relative highness or lowness of a tone.
• Tempo refers to the speed of a musical composition.
• Timbre refers to the quality of sound that makes it distinct from other sounds.
• Dynamics refers to the loudness or softness of a sound in music.
• Rhythm involves the consistent pattern or succession of identical or similar sounds.
• Duration refers to the length of time during which a sound is produced.

Imagery

• Olfactory imagery involves the sense of smell.
• Kinesthetic imagery involves words relating to motion.
• Tactile imagery involves words that appeal to the sense of touch.
• Gustatory imagery appeals to the sense of taste.
• Thermal imagery involves the sense of heat.

Literary Devices

• Symbolism occurs when one thing is used to represent another.
• Characterization involves revealing a character's traits through description, action, or dialogue.
• Theme is typically concretized through the plot and character development.
• Exposition is the part of the plot that introduces the setting and characters of the story.
• Socioeconomic status is an aspect of characterization that involves information about a character's profession or economic status.
• If a story starts 'in medias res', it means that it begins in the middle of the action.

Story Elements

• Falling action is the part of the plot that follows the climax and leads to the resolution.
• Melody is the term for the series of consecutive tones that vary in pitch and duration to form a line of individual significance.
• Harmony is the simultaneous sounding of two or more tones.
• Polyphony is the term for the number of tones expected to be apprehended simultaneously in music.
• Monophony is a type of musical texture that involves the sounding of a single melodic line without accompaniment.
• Form is the term associated with the overall organization, shape, and coherence of a musical composition.

Additional Information

• Julian Felipe arranged Jose Palma's lyrics of the Philippine National Anthem into a march.
• Limited third-person viewpoint is used when the narrator reports only what is observed, such as speech and actions of characters, without revealing their thoughts and emotions.
• Tone of a story refers to the author's attitude or point of view.
• In the selective third-person point of view, the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of only some characters.
• The protagonist represents the main character in a story.
• Atmosphere of a literary piece primarily refers to the emotional tone or feeling created by the author.
• Omniscient third-person viewpoint occurs when the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of all characters in the story.

Explore the different types of imagery in literature, including visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, kinaesthetic, and thermal imagery. Learn how authors use words to create vivid pictures that appeal to the senses.