Use Of Imagery In Billy Collins 'Where I M From'

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Imagery and style are poetic devices that intertwine to create individual poems. Imagery refers to images throughout a work or throughout the works of a writer or group of writers. “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon and “I Ask You” by Billy Collins are both poems that display imagery. Style is the way a writer writes to show tone or emotion. “(im) c-a-t(mo)” by e.e. cummings has a great deal of style. Imagery and style help the reader comprehend the poem’s structure. What a reader perceives throughout a poem is based on how the poem is written. It can trigger the reader's emotions. Additionally, the poem can appeal to his or her senses. For instance, in the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon, the reader can clearly picture where …show more content…

This poem in particular has a dominant voice for such a short poem. He uses white space and line breaks to a strong effect. When someone first looks at the poem, he or she might have no idea what it means, but when he or she takes the time to read it again, it makes sense. For the last five lines of the poem the narrator appears to want the reader to read without pausing for line breaks, so then the poem is easily understood. Furthermore, the reader should not pay attention to capitalization, punctuation, or grammar because the writer might choose to deliberately make the poem misunderstanding. Writers do this because they want to make the poem their own. This affects the reader because he or she gets to interpret a poem that exhibits individualism. It might affect their writing or inspire them to write particular poems. Also, because of the style of a poem, many people will have a different approach to the poem and interpret it differently. Everyone has a different mentality when reading, so the style impacts the way people view the poem. Without style, the poem is very boring. Having style in a poem is like trying to put together a puzzle. Taking pieces out that do not fit and putting together pieces that are not so