Imagery Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: W.9-10.3.D

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

This is any form of language that an author can use to stimulate their audience's use of their human senses. It is amazing how some master authors can actually summon the use of a reader's sense of smell, touch, sound, sight, and even taste through use of figurative language. This can help the reader form a deep emotional connection to what is being discussed. Using this type of language in your writing takes time and a great deal of brainstorming to think up all of the possible humanistic qualities of what you are attempting to describe. Learning to write in this way can make for rich and rewarding experience for authors and the readers of their work. These worksheets will explore how to identify and use this type of figurative language in your own writing to help engage the focus of your readers.

Imagery Worksheets To Print:

Basic Information - Use the word bank to help you complete all of these sentences that focus on the topic of this form of figurative language.

Use It... - This is similar to the previous worksheet, but spins it in a slightly different direction.

Brainstorms - You are given a single object that you must share vivid details about.

Sensory Use - We discuss the different forms of this language and encourage students to give it a try.

Text Breakdown - This is to be used while you are actively reading a story as a class.

Use Each Type - We review each different form and then ask students to write based on what we discussed.

Jump Off the Page - Describe each situation that is given to you using this technique.

Poetry - Use this form of language while writing a poem.

Can You Tell? - Use only this tactic to convey each of the following thoughts. Then swap papers with a classmate. Can they identify the subject of your description?

Alien Idea - Can you help the alien determine what the boy is reading?

Word or Phrases - Working off as little as possible, can you really heighten these basic thoughts for students.

Four Approaches - Write four different sentences to describe the picture using a slightly different technique each time.

My Experience - Write about something that you have experienced lately using imagery.

Sentence Rewrites - Amp up each of these sentences by using this technqiue.

The Great Gatsby - Briefly discuss how Fitzgerald uses this type of language to bring the following aspects of his novel to life.

Pictures to Life - We give you an object that you must make ooze details.

My Description - You will describe something without naming it.

What Ya Reading? - Can you help this frowny dragon pup determine what the girl is reading.

The Scene - Describe this swap ridden forest and how it all works.

Can You See It? - You will need something interest in the room you are in to do this one.

State it Differently - We give you a basic detail and ask that you help it jump off the page.

In Fiction - We will look at how to apply imagery to various parts of a fictional story.

Prompts - You are given a one word prompt and asked to use this tatic to drive it home.

Bring Pictures to Life - You have some basic objects that we ask you to describe vividly.

Lifelike - Using this strategy in your writing makes it compelling, easy to imagine, and more appealing.

Writing for the Senses - We touch on some of the finer points that you contemplate.

Examples - You will find examples in a text that you are reading.

All Senses - Use each type of sensory language to complete this exercise.

Food to Life - Describe each food using imagery and what you have learned so far.

Poetry - You will read poems and pinpoint where this technique is used.

What is Imagery in Stories?

Have you ever read a book that made you feel like you were experiencing the same thing as the characters you were reading about? If so, you can thank imagery for that experience. But how is this possible? Basically, the writer attempts to conjure up a "mental picture" in the reader's mind by using certain words. For example, her lips tasted as sweet as sugar. To give you a better understanding on this technique, here's everything you need to know about imagery in stories.


The purpose of all literary devices of the English language is to enrich the author's work and add greater depth to their words. Imagery is an extremely popular literary device that has been an essential part of English literature for centuries. One can find different types of imagery used in almost all kinds of different English literature, such as novels, poems, short stories, etc.


What is Imagery?


Even though there are different sorts of imagery, they all serve a similar purpose; to evoke a reader's gut-level response. Let's look at the definition of imagery to understand better the role of imagery in literature, especially stories.


Imagery is a literary device that uses metaphor and figurative language to conjure up a sensory experience or paint an image in the reader's mind using vivid words or descriptions. When using figures of speech effectively, they may arouse their readers' senses, including their sense of taste, smell, touch, hearing, and sight. However, the term "imagery" does not just refer to visual representations or mental pictures but also to bodily experiences and internal emotions.


Imagery is the use of certain descriptive words or phrases that can stimulate a reader's senses to enhance their reading experience. An author of a book or a poem can trigger a reader's sense of sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste simply through the special use of certain words. The complete build-up of the sensory experience helps the reader drift into a different world and keeps them fully engrossed in the author's work.


Some of the most renowned names who rose to fame because of the skilled use of imagery in their work include Shakespeare, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, Terry Pratchett, etc.


Some of the most popular examples of extraordinary work that includes different types of imagery include the following:


'The landscape was snow and green ice on broken mountains. These weren't old mountains, worn down by time and weather and full of gentle ski slopes, but young, sulky, adolescent mountains. They held secret ravines and merciless crevices. One yodel out of place would attract, not the jolly echo of a lonely goatherd, but fifty tons of express-delivery snow.'


- Terry Pratchett


Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating 'round the perfect trees


- Robert Frost


Types of Imagery in Literature


There are five basic types of imagery in literature, often used through figures of speech such as emotions and metaphors to draw comparisons between the two. Generally, imagery gives sensory elements that help produce clear and colorful descriptions of the subject matter, appealing to the imagination and emotions of the reader and their senses in a unique way. The following are the most common forms of imagery, each related to one of the human senses:


- Visual (Sight) - She held the crimson apple in her palm, and it glistened. Visual imagery uses certain descriptive words and phrases that bring an author's work to life and allow the reader to fully visualize exactly what the author is trying to portray.


- Tactile (Touch) - The prickly cactus was a problem for the soldiers in the desert. Tactile imagery includes the use of descriptive words and sentences that stimulate a reader's sense of touch. A reader is able to sense the warmth, texture, hardness, etc., of an object or person described in the written text.


- Olfactory (Smell) - The stench of the athlete's sweaty gym attire was noticeable. Olfactory imagery is often everyone's favorite type of imagery, and it is meant to stimulate a reader's sense of smell. Proper use of olfactory imagery will allow a reader to very accurately imagine the type of scent that the author has described. Many times, readers begin to salivate just from reading the description of the aroma of their favorite foods.


- Gustatory (Taste) - The warm, salty soup eased her sore throat. Gustatory imagery stimulates a reader's sense of taste and allows them to imagine the taste of food, person, or an object exactly as the author wants them to.


- Auditory (Hearing) - The child was terrified by the sound of the rumbling thunder. Auditory imagery is a kind of description that is meant to trigger a reader's ears. The reader is able to imagine the different sounds, their volume, their depth, etc., simply by reading the text.


Literary Examples


"It began raining one day and continued to pour nonstop for two months. We experienced every kind of rain there is, including cap'n, sleet, and hail. There were moments when it was a little stinging rain and a heavy downpour. It came down both sideways and straight down, and at times it seemed to be rising from the ground." – An excerpt from Forrest Gump by Winston Groom.


"It was a grimy morning, and the air was heavy with moisture. When I looked out my little window, I saw the moisture on the exterior...I noticed the moisture lying on the barren hedges and sparse grass. I thought to myself, every rail and gate was damp and clammy…" – An excerpt from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.


For writers, it may be challenging to describe sensory experiences through words, and this is where imagery comes in. Just to refresh your memory, imagery is descriptive language that engages one or more of our senses. When writers use imagery, they might utilize words or descriptions to build a picture in readers' minds as they enter the world formed by words on the pages.