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He was not interested in the snow.

Imagery

Imagery makes writing vivid. Explore simile, metaphor, and personification to create pictures in the reader’s mind and analyse effects for GCSE English exams.

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Fascinating Fact:

Keats greets autumn as a “season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” warm and heavy with ripeness.

In GCSE English, you study how writers use imagery to shape meaning and emotion. You will identify devices, choose precise quotations, and explain how each image guides the reader’s response.

Key Terms

Simile: A comparison using like or as to show a clear similarity.
Metaphor: A direct comparison that says one thing is another to deepen meaning.
Personification: Giving human actions or feelings to objects, animals, or ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions (Click to see answers)

What is imagery in GCSE English?

Imagery is language that creates sensory pictures or strong ideas in a reader’s mind. It includes similes, metaphors, and personification to make meaning more vivid.

How do I analyse a metaphor in an exam answer?

Select a short quotation, name it as a metaphor, explain the comparison, and link the effect to the question’s focus on theme, tone, or character.

What is the difference between simile and personification?

A simile compares two things using like or as. Personification gives human qualities to non-human things to create empathy or a clearer picture.

Try These Related Quizzes

1 .

'Gregor's eyes turned next to the window, and the overcast sky - one could hear raindrops beating on the window gutter - made him quite melancholy.' - What sensory imagery does Franz Kafka use in this passage from his short story, 'The Metamorphosis'?

Sound and taste

Sight and touch

Taste and touch

Sight and sound

This is a straightforward example of the use of sensory imagery. Kafka tells the reader to visualise the overcast sky through the window and describes the sound the raindrops make as they beat against the gutter

2 .

'No doubt I now grew very pale; - but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened voice. Yet the sound increased - and what could I do? It was a low, dull, quick sound - much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath - and yet the officers heard it not.' - What imagery does Edgar Allen Poe use in this extract from his short story, 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?

Auditory (sound) imagery and a metaphor

Auditory (sound) imagery and a simile

Visual (sight) imagery and a metaphor

Visual (sight) imagery and a simile

He describes the sound through the simile (the muffled watch) and more literally (low, dull, quick). Poe also uses internal alliteration: the repetition of the 'ch' sound in 'much', 'such' and 'watch', which, by appearing as almost-regular beats, reinforces the imagined sound of the watch and of the tell-tale heart

3 .

As well as using images drawn from the five senses, imagery also includes figurative language (language which is not restricted to its literal sense). Which of the following is NOT an example of figurative language?

Metaphor

Narrative

Simile

Personification

Sound imagery, such as onomatopoeia and alliteration, is also considered to be figurative language

4 .

'He was not interested in the snow. When he got off the freight, one early evening during the depression, Sargeant never even noticed the snow. But he must have felt it seeping down his neck, cold, wet, sopping in his shoes.' - What imagery does Langston Hughes use in this excerpt from his short story, 'On the Road'?

Visual imagery and a simile

Auditory imagery and a metaphor

A simile and a metaphor

Tactile (touch) imagery and onomatopoeia

'Sopping' is an example of onomatopoeia

5 .

'The world is charged with the grandeur of God, / It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; / It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil / Crushed.' - What imagery has Gerard Manley Hopkins used in his poem, 'God's Grandeur'?

Visual imagery, metaphor, simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia

Auditory imagery, simile, onomatopoeia

Tactile imagery, simile, metaphor

Visual imagery, alliteration

Would you have imagined that a writer could use five different types of imagery in only 29 words?

6 .

'Ooze' and 'crushed' are examples of ...

metaphor

alliteration

onomatopoeia

personification

The two words are nearly alliterative, but not quite ('z' and 'sh')

7 .

'The Palace Hotel at Fort Romper was painted a light blue, a shade that is on the legs of a kind of heron, causing the bird to declare its position against any background. The Palace Hotel, then, was always screaming and howling in a way that made the dazzling winter landscape of Nebraska seem only a grey swampish hush.' - What sensory imagery does this passage from Stephen Crane's short story, 'The Blue Hotel', use?

Smell and sound

Sight and touch

Sight and sound

Sound and touch

This passage allows you to visualise the contrast between the hotel and its drab surroundings. It also describes the brash colours as a scream and a howl which hushes the landscape - the visual is reinforced with auditory imagery

8 .

The passage above contains further examples of the use of imagery. What are they?

Alliteration

Personification

Onomatopoeia

All of the above

The colours of the hotel 'scream' and 'howl' (personification), the 's' and 'sh' sounds are repeated in the last line (internal alliteration), and 'hush' is an example of onomatopoeia

9 .

'The floor boards have a sour breath / Cadaver lips apart, / The ribbed planks, furred with dust / Smell like a beast in the zoo.' - What imagery has Louis Grudin used in his poem, 'Dust on Spring Street'?

Tactile imagery and a metaphor

Visual and auditory imagery

Auditory imagery and a simile

Visual and olfactory (smell) imagery, personification

10 .

The use of the phrases 'sour breath', 'cadaver lips', 'ribbed' and 'furred' are examples of ...

simile

personification

alliteration

All of the above

You can find more about this topic by visiting BBC Bitesize - Writing fiction

Author: Sheri Smith (PhD English Literature, English Teacher & Quiz Writer)