Travel and Adventure
Imagery, and what the train means
Learn what imagery is, and what the train means to the poet.
Imagery is descriptive language that makes pictures in your mind and appeals to your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch. It lets you step into a description.
'Travel' is almost all imagery, mostly sound and sight:
| Phrase | Sense | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| miles away | how far the train is | |
| day is loud | sound | the busy, noisy daytime |
| whistle shrieking | sound | the train's piercing whistle |
| cinders red on the sky | sight | glowing sparks lighting the night sky |
| engine steaming | sound | the train's fast, powerful movement |
| heart is warm | feeling | her love for her friends |
One phrase does something extra. Shrieking is a human cry: people shriek; a whistle just blows. Giving a human quality to something that isn't human is called personification. (Remember the River with a capital R in Unit 1? Same device!)
Why make the whistle shriek? The poet never sees or boards the train. Making it shriek turns it from a machine into something that seems to be calling to her!
So what does the train symbolise (stand for)? Adventure and opportunities: everything that could happen somewhere else. Not comfort, not school: going.
Use the phrases yourself:
- After meeting her old friend, her heart was warm with happy memories.
- The market is bustling; the day is loud with shoppers' chatter.
- The bonfire threw cinders red into the night sky.
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