IB Docs (2) Team
Imagery & 5 senses
Writers appeal to our senses through the use of imagery. Mistakenly, we often think of imagery as a poetic device that appeals to our sense of sight. Imagery, however, can appeal to all five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Single words can evoke multiple senses, making a literary work come to life in the mind of the reader.
In Part 4 we aim to develop close reading skills. This includes noticing the effects of imagery on the text's reader. If we begin to examine texts through five different lenses, one lens for each of the five senses, then we begin to notice the importance of imagery in placing the reader in a particular mood.
In this lesson, you will study the poem 'Blackberry Picking' by Seamus Heaney, which evokes multiple senses through the use of imagery. After this exercise, you can apply this simple activity to other texts that you are studying for Part 4. Such exercises help develop perceptive reading skills and help engage you with texts.
The five senses
As you read the following poem by Seamus Heaney, find words that evoke each of the five senses. You can do this by filling in the table below, where each sense has been given a row. Some words may evoke more than one sense and can be placed in several categories. Here is a example:
Imagery and the fives senses| Sight |
 rain and sun, glossy purple clot, red, green, blood, inked up, milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots, round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills, big dark blobs, a plate of eyes, the byre, fur, rat-grey fungus, crying, the lovely canfuls |
| Sound |
the tinkling bottom, crying |
| Smell |
thickened wine, byre, The juice was stinking too, The fruit fermented, smelt of rot |
| Taste |
it's flesh was sweet, thickened wine, stains upon the tongue, the sweet flesh would turn sour, The fruit fermented |
| Touch |
hard as a knot, briars scratched, wet grass bleached our boots, we trekked and picked, Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky, We hoarded the fresh berries, fur |
Blackberry Picking
Seamus Heaney
1996
Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it
Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for
Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
Towards assessment
Individual oral commentary - Imagery is one of several aspects that you will want to discuss when commenting on your passage during the individual oral commentary (IOC). During the 20-minute preparation for the IOC, be sure to highlight all examples of imagery that you see. You may want to spend anywhere from 1 to 4 minutes talking about the importance and effects of imagery, by referring to all of the senses that are evoked in the passage.
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