Imagery
Junior Cycle Poetry
Learning Intention
1) Revise the key images
in our studied poems
Stanza 1: Images
“Coughing like hags” “knock kneed” “like old
beggars under sacks” “drunk with fatigue”
What is significant about these images?
●The image of the soldiers walking “knock
kneed”, slumped like beggars and
“coughing like hags” really emphasises
their suffering. They are so exhausted
they are described as being “drunk with
fatigue”.
● Some of these men are very young, yet
they now seem elderly, as war has made
them sick and injured.
Stanzas 2+3: Images
“Floundering like a man in fire or lime-as
under a green sea I saw him drowning”
“Guttering, choking, drowning”
What is significant about these images?
● In stanzas two and three, we see the
aftermath of a gas attack. The brutal
images of a man “floundering” like he’s
on fire, alongside him “guttering,
choking, drowning” is truly horrifying.
● These images convey the agonising
death experienced by soldiers in gas
attacks.
Stanza 4: Images
“White eyes writhing in his face”
“Like a devil’s sick of sin”
“Jolt of blood gargling from froth-corrupted
lungs”
“Vile as cancer”
What is significant about these images?
The final stanza contains harrowing imagery.
We can see the soldier’s “white eyes
writhing” in his face, which is also described
as being “like a devil’s sick of sin” and as
“vile as cancer”.
The image of the froth gargling from the
lungs of the soldier is extremely disturbing.
● The imagery in the poem ‘Dulce et
decorum est’ by Wilfred Owen can be
described as…..
● Dark/disturbing/harrowing/grim/graphic
● Why does Wilfred Owen use such dark
imagery?
● How does the imagery connect to the
title/theme/final lines?
Studied Poems
1) ‘Dulce et decorum est’ by Wilfred
Owen.
2) ‘Mid-Term Break’ by Seamus
Heaney.
3) ‘Back in the Playground Blues’ by
Adrian Mitchell.
Mid-Term Break: Key Images
● “The baby cooed and laughed and rocked in
the pram”.
● “Coughed out angry tearless sighs” “I met my
father crying”.
● “The corpse, stanched and bandaged”.
● “Snowdrops and candles soothed his bedside”.
● “A poppy bruise”.
● “A four foot box, a foot for every year”.
Back in the Playground Blues: Key
Images”
● Standing “four feet high” “three
miles long, five miles wide”.
● “Broken black tarmac, high wire
fence all around”.
● “Beetle on it’s black back rocking”.
● “The Killing Ground”.
How to answer a question about imagery:
● Explain why you like/remember an
image- what makes it special?
● Connect the image to the overall theme of
the poem e.g death, grief, war, bullying.
● Write an introduction which clearly
describes the type of imagery e.g dark,
disturbing, beautiful.
