Identify and analyse imagery and figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, symbol) in poetry, moving from the device to its precise effect on meaning and the reader

What this dot point is asking

SEAB wants you to recognise imagery and figurative language in poetry - metaphor, simile, personification, symbol and the sensory images a poem builds - and, crucially, to analyse their effect on meaning rather than simply naming them. The central skill is the move from feature to effect: noticing a device is the start, not the finish. A strong answer explains what an image makes the reader see, feel or understand, and how it serves the poem's larger meaning.

The answer

Imagery: the pictures a poem makes

Imagery is the language that appeals to the senses and builds a mental picture. It is not only visual: a poem can evoke sound, touch, taste and smell. When you analyse imagery, ask what the image asks you to picture, and what that picture implies. An image of "frost on a windowpane" is not just cold; depending on the poem it can suggest fragility, beauty, isolation, or the passing of time.

Figurative language: saying one thing in terms of another

Figurative language describes something by relating it to something else. The core devices:

• Metaphor states that one thing is another ("the city wears its evening"), fusing the two so we read the subject through the qualities of the image.
• Simile compares using "like" or "as" ("a window like a coin"), keeping a small distance between the two and inviting us to weigh the likeness.
• Personification gives human qualities to something non-human ("the slow purse of the dark"), which can make a setting feel alive, watchful, or sympathetic.
• Symbol lets a concrete thing stand for a larger idea (a road for a life's choices), so the poem means more than it literally says.

Connotation is where the meaning lives

The marks come from connotation - the associations a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning. "Coin of light" works because coins connote value, smallness and currency; that is why the image makes each window feel precious. When you analyse, do not stop at "this is a metaphor for the city". Ask why this image and not another, and unfold the specific connotations the poet has chosen.

Move from feature to effect

The single most important habit is to write effect, not just feature. A weak sentence says "The poet uses a metaphor here." A strong sentence says "By making each window 'a coin of light', the poet lends the cityscape a sense of hoarded value, so the reader sees the dark not as empty but as a purse quietly full of treasure." Same device, but now you have analysed what it does.

Examples in context

Example 1. Simile that controls distance. Compare "the moon was a pale stone" (metaphor) with "the moon was like a pale stone" (simile). The metaphor fuses moon and stone, making the moon feel inert and cold outright; the simile keeps a gap, inviting the reader to weigh how far the likeness holds. In analysis, noting whether a poet chooses metaphor or simile is itself a point about how directly the meaning is pressed on us.

Example 2. Personification creating atmosphere. In Wordsworth's lines on a city seen at dawn, the personified calm of the scene makes the urban landscape feel restful and almost human. Personification often does atmospheric work: it can make a setting watchful, tender or hostile, and analysing that mood is more valuable than simply labelling the device.

Try this

Q1. Why is naming a device ("this is a metaphor") not yet analysis? [2 marks]

• Cue. Analysis requires explaining the effect: what the image makes the reader see, feel or understand, and how it serves the poem's meaning.

Q2. In the line "every window is a coin of light", what do the connotations of "coin" contribute? [2 marks]

• Cue. Coins connote value, smallness and currency, so the metaphor makes each lit window feel precious and the dark a purse hoarding wealth.

Q3. What is a conceit, and why is it worth noticing? [3 marks]

• Cue. A conceit is an extended metaphor sustained across lines or a whole poem; noticing it matters because it lets the poet explore many facets of the subject, giving the analysis more to work with.