Verbal Images in Literature Database

Ongoing Type Research Since 2020

Id no.	Verbal image (EN)	Verbal image + co-text (EN)	Verbal image (orig. if not EN)	Author	Text	Genre	Line(s)	Noted by	Full comment	Sense(s) elicited	Perception flag (PF)	Metaphor	Deixis	Foregrounding (position)	Foregrounding (devices)	Size (syllables)	Size (words)	Size (characters, no spaces)	No of lines	IMAG rate of Head (approximated)	IMAG rate of Head (precise)	Thematic core
001	the banner at daybreak is flapping	In the upward air where their eyes turn, / Where [the banner at daybreak is flapping]		Whitman, Walt	Song of the Banner at Daybreak	Poetry	7	Pavese ([1930] 2020: 106)	I mean the figure of the banner that moves in the wind, incessant image which expresses, as can be seen, freedom, joy, other thoughts that rise on the world	visual; auditory	PF (eyes)		(the)	(title)	(repetition)	9	6	29	1	6	5,969	O2
002	these faces in the crowd	The apparition of [these faces in the crowd]: / petals on a wet, black bough		Pound, Ezra	In a Station of the Metro	Poetry	1	Frye (1957: 123)	In Pound’s famous blackboard example of such a metaphor, the two-line poem “In a Station of the Metro”, the images of the faces in the crowd and the petals on the black bough are juxtaposed with no predicate of any kind connecting them. Predication belongs to assertion and descriptive meaning, not to the literal structure of poetry.	visual	PF (apparition)	FACES ARE PETALS	(these)			5	5	20	1	6,4	6,414	B1
003	petals on a wet, black bough	The apparition of these faces in the crowd: / [petals on a wet, black bough]		Pound, Ezra	In a Station of the Metro	Poetry	2	Frye (1957: 123)	In Pound’s famous blackboard example of such a metaphor, the two-line poem “In a Station of the Metro”, the images of the faces in the crowd and the petals on the black bough are juxtaposed with no predicate of any kind connecting them. Predication belongs to assertion and descriptive meaning, not to the literal structure of poetry.	visual; haptic; olfactory	PF (apparition)	FACES ARE PETALS				7	6	23	1	6,6	6,647	L3
004	a pearl on forehead white	Come back again the outlines of our faces / So feeble, that [a pearl on forehead white] / Comes not less speedily unto our eyes	tornan d’i nostri visi le postille / debili sì, che [perla in bianca fronte] / non vien men forte a le nostre pupille	Alighieri, Dante	Paradise, Canto III	Poetry	14	Arnehim (1974: 79)	Whereas subdivision is one of the prerequisites of sight, similarity can make things invisible like a pearl on a white forehead - 'perla in bianca fronte' - to use Dante's image.	visual	PF (eyes)	FACES ARE PEARLS				6	4	19	1	6,7	6,657	B5
005	[a boat with the yellow sail / that dyed yellow the sea underneath]	there passed [a boat with the yellow sail / that dyed yellow the sea underneath]	una barca con la vela gialla, / che di giallo tingeva il mare sotto	Saba, Umberto	In riva al mare	Poetry	17-18	Mengaldo (1978: xxviii)	To make just an example, I find very intriguing the similarity between the emblematic image of the 'boat with the yellow sail / that dyed yellow the sea underneath' [Saba], vehicle of the idea of death, and a similar figure in Erlebnis (1892) by Hofmannsthal	visual		SAIL IS BRUSH		(stanza-initial)	(repetition)	21	13	53	2	6,8	6,823	M4
006	each rising step has little flutings like the stairs in a cathedral turret. When the fireworks rocket bursts it makes fantastic designs that look as if they have dropped back on to the building	Chambord has only one stairway, a double one, for coming down and going up without seeing each other: everything is arranged to serve the mysteries of war and love. The building blossoms out on each floor; [each rising step has little flutings like the stairs in a cathedral turret. When the fireworks rocket bursts it makes fantastic designs that look as if they have dropped back on to the building]: chimneys square or round, embellished with marble fetiches, like the dolls I saw pulled out of excavations in Athens.	les degrés s'élèvent accompagnés de petites cannelures comme des marches dans les tourelles d'une cathédrale. La fusée, en éclatant, forme des dessins fantastiques qui semblent avoir retombé sur l'édifice	Chateaubriand, Francois René	Vie de Rancé, Book II	Prose (Fiction)		Riffaterre (1981: 111)	On now to the images: one is the startling metaphor of architectural pyrotechnics-rising stairs become a rocket soaring to its zenith, exploding, falling back on to the roof, where the ornamentation preserves the fleeting fiery designs.	visual; auditory	PF (look as if; like)	BUILDING IS FIREWORK					32	176		6,8	6,839	H1-K1
007	monks, rosary in hand, droning their psalms as the bee drones, coming home to the hive bearing booty.		des moines, le rosaire à la main, bourdonnant leurs psaumes comme l'abeille bourdonne en rentrant à la ruche avec son butin	de Lamártine, Alphonse	Harmonies poetiques et religieuses	Prose (Fiction)		Riffaterre (1981: 116)	Within this context the passage below, exemplifying the type of image I want to discuss, makes its appearance as a climax, a spiritual variant on the sensual-bliss paradigm leading up to it	visual; auditory	PF (comme = as)	MONKS ARE BEES					22	103		6,9	6,933	S2-L2
008	a jewel hung in ghastly night	my soul’s imaginary sight / presents thy shadow to my sightless view, / which like [a jewel hung in ghastly night] / makes black night beauteous and her old face new		Shakespeare, William	Sonnet 27	Poetry	11	Serpieri (1995: 442)	Behind this image there is the Elizabethan belief that certain precious stones could be seen in the dark because they emitted their own light	visual	PF (sightless view; like)	SHADOW IS JEWEL				8	6	24	1	6,6	6,588	B5
009	A Rainbow in the sky	My heart leaps up when I behold / [A Rainbow in the sky]: / So was it when my life began; / So is it now I am a Man		Wordsworth, William	My Heart Leaps Up	Poetry	2	Hiraga (2005: 118)	‘A Rainbow in the sky’ is the only concrete image in the poem	visual	PF (behold)			(text-initial)		7	5	16	1	6,9	6,857	O4.3
010	Unrespited, unpitied, unrepreevd	for ever sunk / Under yon boyling Ocean, wrapt in Chains; / There to converse with everlasting groans, / [Unrespited, unpitied, unrepreevd]		Milton, John	Paradise Lost, Book II	Poetry	185	Twose (2008: 89)	In (9), line 185 can be viewed as an abbreviation of the structure unrespited and unpitied and unrepreevd. Each successive coordination further underlines the horror of the imagined future punishments awaiting the fallen angels should they rebel again. The string forms a single complex image consisting of three parts, semantically: the lack of relief, the lack of (offered) pity, the lack of forgiveness.	visual					(list of three; parallelism; negation)	10	3	30	1			E4-G2
011	swimmers into cleanness leaping	Now, God be thanked Who has matched us with His hour, / And caught our youth, and wakened us from sleeping, / With hand made sure, clear eye, and sharpened power, / To turn, as [ swimmers into cleanness leaping], / Glad from a world grown old and cold and weary		Brooke, Rupert	Peace	Poetry	4	Stockwell (2009: 157)	The pivotal and most self-consciously striking image in the poem is the explicit metaphor of ‘swimmers into cleanness leaping’, with its sequential iconicity of action.	visual	PF (as)	SOLDIERS ARE SWIMMERS; WAR IS CLEANINESS				9	4	28	1	6,2	6,152	S2
012	keeps going / past the white cigarette	so if she [keeps going / past the white cigarette] / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself		Dolin, Sharon	Black Painting #8	Poetry	16–17	Keefe (2011: 143)	Indeed, it seems that Dolin argues for Mitchell’s image pushing past the boundaries of the poem in this unique series of images: 'so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself' (ll. 16–23)	visual			(the)		(parallelism; list)	8	6	31	2	6,8	6,733	B5
013	attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool	so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when [attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool] // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself		Dolin, Sharon	Black Painting #8	Poetry	19-20	Keefe (2011: 143)	Indeed, it seems that Dolin argues for Mitchell’s image pushing past the boundaries of the poem in this unique series of images: 'so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself' (ll. 16–23)	visual		CONTEMPLATION IS POOL	(already)		(parallelism; list)	15	8	45	2	6,3	6,294	W3
014	the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region	so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then [the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region] // until the eye refreshes itself		Dolin, Sharon	Black Painting #8	Poetry	21-22	Keefe (2011: 143)	Indeed, it seems that Dolin argues for Mitchell’s image pushing past the boundaries of the poem in this unique series of images: 'so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself' (ll. 16–23)	visual			(this; now)		(parallelism; list)	16	12	51	2	6,7	6,697	O4.3
015	the eye refreshes itself	so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until [the eye refreshes itself]		Dolin, Sharon	Black Painting #8	Poetry	23	Keefe (2011: 143)	Indeed, it seems that Dolin argues for Mitchell’s image pushing past the boundaries of the poem in this unique series of images: 'so if she keeps going / past the white cigarette / past the favorite part of the day /when attention has already slid / into a contemplative pool // then the application of this red / now this blue then an olive region // until the eye refreshes itself' (ll. 16–23)	visual	PF (the eye)		(the)		(parallelism; list)	7	4	21	1	6,8	6,794	B1
016	my body / rescued, wasn’t it safe // didn’t the scar form, invisible / above the injury	wasn’t [my body / rescued, wasn’t it safe // didn’t the scar form, invisible / above the injury]		Glück, Louise	October	Poetry	7-10	Azcuy (2011: 39)	The wounded women question: ‘wasn’t my body / rescued, wasn’t it safe // didn’t the scar form, invisible / above the injury’ (p. 5). A parallel can be drawn between this image of the scarred, injured earth and PTSD, with each new injury or scar equalling the repetition of traumatic memory.	visual	PF(invisible)		(my; the)			24	16	67	4	6,4	6,441	B1
017	More scouts than strangers, ghosts who’d walked abroad / Unfazed by light	[More scouts than strangers, ghosts who’d walked abroad / Unfazed by light], to make a new beginning. / And make a go of it, alive and sinning, / Ourselves again, free-willed again, not bad.		Heaney, Seamus	Tollund	Poetry	21-22	Regan (2011:105)	The image of ghosts is momentarily unsettling, since the haunted present usually signifies the troubled legacy of the past, but the facing of the light is a positive indication of a new start and a new determination to go forward, unconstrained by the narrow moral and religious dictates that have previously hindered progress.	visual		PEOPLE ARE GHOSTS		(text-final)		14	12	61	2	6,2	6,161	S2-S9
018	Rummaging in the tangled pile for their spectacles.	I see them absentmindedly pat their naked bodies / Where waistcoat and apron pockets would have been. / The grandparents turn back and take an eternity / [Rummaging in the tangled pile for their spectacles].		Longley, Michael	The Exhibit	Poetry	4	Corcoran (2011: 138)	Longley ’s four-line poem ‘The Exhibit’ concludes with an image evocative of a museum exhibit in which the sheer volume of commonplace items, as in ‘Terezín ’ , creates an uncanny sense of absence despite the haunted surplus of items absent their persons.	visual; haptic	PF (see)		(the; their)	(text-final)		13	8	44	1	6,8	6,794	B5
019	one frayed feather / tell of that design, // or the covenant they undertake, wind and kittiwake?	What / can [one frayed feather / tell of that design, // or the covenant they undertake, wind and kittiwake?]		Jamie, Kathleen	Moult	Poetry		Collins (2011: 160)	The poem ‘Moult’ uses the image of seabirds’ feathers washed ashore to explore this relationship. Once part of a bird’s ‘outstretched wing’, they speak of both the mechanical operation of flight and its experience	visual; haptic	PF(tell)	FEATHER IS SIGN				23	15	77	3	6,7	6,678	L2
020	driving my many selves from cave to cave	This is me, anonymous, water’s soliloquy, / all names, all voices, Slip-Shape, this is Proteus, / whoever that is, the shepherd of the seals, / [driving my many selves from cave to cave]		Oswald, Alice	Dart	Poetry		Drangsholt (2011: 175)	With the image of the river driving its multiple selfhood ‘from cave to cave’, time becomes space in the sense that the temporalities of past, present and future are recognized to be equally relevant.	visual		SELVES ARE OBJECTS; RIVER IS PERSON	(my)	(text-final)		10	8	33	1	6,4	6,382	W3
021	the wide arcades where time has slightly bent the flared and pink surfaces…. A soft and malleable matter	in front of us [the wide arcades where time has slightly bent the flared and pink surfaces…. A soft and malleable matter]	devant nous [les larges arcades dont le temps a légèrement infléchi les surfaces évasées et roses . . . une matière douce et malléable]	Proust, Marcel	À La Recherce du Temps Perdu	Prose (Fiction)		Tribout-Joseph (2012: 22)	After the narrator has just told us that he has been working on Ruskin, we find the following image of the pink marble edifice: ‘devant nous les larges arcades dont le temps a légèrement infléchi les surfaces évasées et roses . . . une matière douce et malléable (RTP, IV: 224).	visual; haptic	PF (in front of us)		(the)				22	100		6,5	6,486	H1
022	an incandescent curve / licked by chromatic flames / in labyrinths of reflections	[an incandescent curve / licked by chromatic flames / in labyrinths of reflections ] // This gong / of polished hyperaesthesia / shrills with brass / as the aggressive light / strikes / its significance		Loy, Mina	Brancusi's Golden Bird	Poetry	22-24	Lazevnick (2013: 199)	The poem, as an image, absorbs the energy of the sculpture and guides the reader with a series of dizzying images and sounds (‘‘an incandescent curve,’’ ‘‘This gong,’’ ‘‘aggressive light,’’ etc.)	visual; haptic		FLAMES ARE TOGUES				20	11	67	3	6,8	6,824	O4.4
023	the aggressive light / strikes	an incandescent curve / licked by chromatic flames / in labyrinths of reflections // This gong / of polished hyperaesthesia / shrills with brass / as [the aggressive light / strikes] / its significance		Loy, Mina	Brancusi's Golden Bird	Poetry	29	Lazevnick (2013: 199)	The poem, as an image, absorbs the energy of the sculpture and guides the reader with a series of dizzying images and sounds (‘‘an incandescent curve,’’ ‘‘This gong,’’ ‘‘aggressive light,’’ etc.)	visual; haptic		LIGHT IS WEAPON	(the)			5	4	25	2	6,2	6,161	O4.3
024	David was reading with his shoulders and the small of his back against two pillows and another folded behind his head	The breeze from the sea was blowing through the room and [David was reading with his shoulders and the small of his back against two pillows and another folded behind his head]		Hemingway, Ernest	The Garden of Eden	Prose (Fiction)		Kuzmicova (2013: 29-30)	Suppose the hypothetical reader of these two lines focuses, as most readers usually do, on the one human character present on the scene. The reader- imager may then easily form a referential image of David as conjured from within: enacting David’s familiar body posture; experiencing the breeze and the pressure of pillows against his back and head, a quick view of the pages in David’s book, perhaps even a glance of the indistinct furnishings of a room. Alternatively, one may form an image of the scene as conjured from without: visualizing a sketchy male figure half-sitting on a sofa or bed, a book in his hands, a pillow behind his head (the ones behind David’s back are likely occluded unless he is visualized from the side rather than en face). Obviously, these two images, albeit equally referential, yield qualitatively very different experiences.	visual; haptic			(his)				21	97		6,6	6,629	S2
025	bones / out of my carriage window	This Tuesday I saw [bones / out of my carriage window]		Boland, Evan	The famine road	Poetry	34-35	McLoughlin (2013: 224)	The image of the ‘bones’ (line 34) seen by Jones through his carriage window is both a memento mori and an image of absence of life and absence of flesh, which echoes the dying man of stanza five, in effect showing his negation.	visual	PF (saw)		(my)			8	6	26	2	6,7	6,686	B1
026	her scrubbed and sour humble hands / Lie with religion in their cramp	I know [her scrubbed and sour humble hands / Lie with religion in their cramp], her threadbare / Whisper in a damp word, her wits drilled hollow, / Her fist of a face died clenched on a round pain; / And sculptured Ann is seventy years of stone.		Thomas, Dylan	After the funeral	Poetry	31-32	Päivärinta (2014: 142)	The previous lines describe Ann’s hands as ‘sour’, ‘humble’ and ‘cramped’ due to religion. Transferring the image of hands being cramped as a result of praying, and humble and sour possibly due to hard labour as well as due to Christian humility, onto the ‘fist of a face’ that is ‘clenched on a round pain’ combines multiple senses of being ‘cramped’: a life of working hard and simply accepting one’s share.	visual; haptic; gustatory	PF (know)	HANDS ARE BODIES	(her)		(list of three)	15	12	56	2	6,9	6,912	B1
027	horizontal States grow vertical,/ From Plymouth Harbor to the Golden Gate, / Till wedged against skyscapes empyreal / Their glories elbowed the decrees of fate.	I saw [horizontal States grow vertical,/ From Plymouth Harbor to the Golden Gate, / Till wedged against skyscapes empyreal / Their glories elbowed the decrees of fate].		Tolson, Melvin	The Unknown Soldier	Poetry	19-22	Krammer (2016: 120)	in stanza four, the speaker creates a similar image to the harsh mountain landscape of “The Mountain Climber”: “I saw horizontal States grow vertical,/ From Plymouth Harbor to the Golden Gate,/ Till wedged against skyscapes empyreal/ Their glories elbowed the decrees of fate.''. Like the image of the mountains, the states are depicted here as grossly unequal skyscrapers, compacting the democratic “horizontal” ideals of the many into the privileged “vertical” opportunities of the few—and throughout the rest of the poem, ignoring the achievements of African Americans.	visual	PF (saw)	STATES ARE TOWERS	no			38	23	133	4	6,7	6,688	O4.4
028	In an ebony coffin / Ornamented with polished African ivory, / With the figures of two African witch doctors/ At her head/ And two at her feet.			Tolson, Melvin	Miss Felicia Babock	Poetry		Krammer (2016: 122)	Miss Babcock journeys to Africa, where she dies of “blackwater fever,” and “was placed […]/ As she had planned […]/ In an ebony coffin/ Ornamented with polished African ivory,/ With the figures of two African witch doctors/ At her head/ And two at her feet.” The image is rich with black and white contrast, but the suggestion is not ethnic and geographic harmony, but separation and difference	visual; haptic			(her)			40	25	113	5	6,5	6,546	O2
029	when I am sleeping / I must most perfectly resemble them	I would rather be horizontal […] The trees and flowers have been strewing their cool odors. I walk among them, but none of them are noticing. Sometimes I think that [when I am sleeping / I must most perfectly resemble them]		Plath, Sylvia	I am vertical	Poetry	14-15	Elleström (2016: 460)	As the narrator states early on, “I would rather be horizontal” and “when I am sleeping / I must most perfectly resemble them” (the trees and flowers). This creates a mental image of a narrator who is resting horizontally, perhaps in “a garden bed,” but the “resemblance” has nothing to do with the visual appearance of the plants.	visual	PF (resemble)	PERSON IS FLOWER; PERSON IS TREE	(I; them)	(text-initial)		14	10	45	2	6,8	6,788	S2-L3
030	In the afternoon thin blades of cloud / Move over the mountains	[In the afternoon thin blades of cloud / Move over the mountains.] / The storm clouds follow them; / Fine rain falls without wind. / The forest is filled with wet resonant silence.		Rexroth, Kenneth	Falling Leaves and Early Snow	Poetry	18-19	Green (2017: 35)	‘Thin blades of cloud’ and ‘wet resonant silence’ will for many of us evoke visual and auditory images respectively. Someone might interpret the latter image by drawing on his background knowledge, gained perhaps from having been told, that a forest in which it has just rained may be very quiet.	visual; haptic		CLOUDS ARE BLADES				16	11	51	2	6,8	6,794	W3-O2
031	The forest is filled with wet resonant silence.	In the afternoon thin blades of cloud / Move over the mountains. / The storm clouds follow them; / Fine rain falls without wind. / [The forest is filled with wet resonant silence.]		Rexroth, Kenneth	Falling Leaves and Early Snow	Poetry	22	Green (2017: 35)	‘Thin blades of cloud’ and ‘wet resonant silence’ will for many of us evoke visual and auditory images respectively. Someone might interpret the latter image by drawing on his background knowledge, gained perhaps from having been told, that a forest in which it has just rained may be very quiet.	visual; auditory; olfactory		SILENCE IS SOUND				12	8	39	1	6,6	6,633	W3
032	Little gusts of sunshine blew	[Little gusts of sunshine blew], strangely bright, and lit up the celandines at the wood's edge, under the hazel-rods, they spangled out bright and yellow. And the wood was still, stiller, but yet gusty with crossing sun.		Lawrence, D. H.	Lady Chatterley's Lover	Prose (Fiction)		Green (2017: 39)	D. H. Lawrence in Lady Chatterley’s Lover describes how ‘‘…little gusts of sunshine blew,’’ through a wooded area. The first time you hear Lawrence’s metaphor, you likely need to form a visual image in order to grasp what the narrator might be trying to convey	visual; auditory		LIGHT IS WIND		(paragraph-initial)			5	25		6,5	6,5	W4
033	the flame out of the serpent’s mouth	So comes [the flame out of the serpent’s mouth] / So plucks the bloom, the red-tipped fingered hand		Bridgewater, E. F.	Closing time	Poetry	1	Stockwell (2017: 32)	The violent images (flames and bloodied hands), the sense of an inexorability to history (the clock going round), and the 1940s cultural British positioning (differently, the record-player and the rain) can all be read consistently within this framing.	visual	PF (comes)	TONGUE IS FLAME	(the)	(text-initial)		8	8	30	1	6,8	6,824	O4.3
034	the red-tipped fingered hand	So comes [the flame out of the serpent’s mouth] / So plucks the bloom, [the red-tipped fingered hand]		Bridgewater, E. F.	Closing time	Poetry	2	Stockwell (2017: 32)	The violent images (flames and bloodied hands), the sense of an inexorability to history (the clock going round), and the 1940s cultural British positioning (differently, the record-player and the rain) can all be read consistently within this framing.	visual		FLOWER IS HAND	(the)	(text-initial)		6	5	25	1	6,9	6,912	B1
035	By his face there had grown a twig	His ears twitched and he turned to the tree. [By his face there had grown a twig]: a twig that smelt of other, and of goose, and of the bitter berries that Lok's stomach told him he must not eat		Golding, William	The Inheritors	Prose (Fiction)		Browse (2018: 138)	In ‘by his face there had grown a twig’, the mapping is not between two static images, but two dynamic construals with opposing image- schematic directionality.	visual		TWIG IS ARROW	(his)				8	27		6,6	6,6	B1-L3
036	On a leafless bough	[On a leafless bough] / A crow is perched - / The autumn dusk		Basho, Matsuo	On a leafless…	Poetry	1	Wilson & Carston (2019: 37)	Arguably, as a result of this slower more effortful processing, the sensorimotor simulations triggered by the nominals a leafless bough, a crow, the autumn dusk, and the verb perched are experienced by the reader as visual images, available for mental scrutiny and reflection	visual						5	4	16	1	6,6	6,6	L3
037	A crow is perched	On a leafless bough / [A crow is perched] - / The autumn dusk		Basho, Matsuo	On a leafless…	Poetry	2	Wilson & Carston (2019: 37)	Arguably, as a result of this slower more effortful processing, the sensorimotor simulations triggered by the nominals a leafless bough, a crow, the autumn dusk, and the verb perched are experienced by the reader as visual images, available for mental scrutiny and reflection	visual						4	4	14	1	6,7	6,727	L2
038	The autumn dusk	On a leafless bough / A crow is perched - / [The autumn dusk]		Basho, Matsuo	On a leafless…	Poetry	3	Wilson & Carston (2019: 37)	Arguably, as a result of this slower more effortful processing, the sensorimotor simulations triggered by the nominals a leafless bough, a crow, the autumn dusk, and the verb perched are experienced by the reader as visual images, available for mental scrutiny and reflection	visual			(the)			4	3	13	1	6,2	6,171	T
039	a heron launched itself from low ground to our south, a foldaway construction of struts and canvas, snapping and locking itself into shape just in time to keep airborne			MacFarlane, Robert	The Old ways: a Journey on Foot	Prose (Fiction)		Wilson & Carston (2019: 36)	The description of the heron in example (2) above also triggers a visual mental image of parts of the heron's body (legs, wings, neck and head) moving into position, somewhat awkwardly but purposefully, as it prepares to take flight. For at least some readers, this image, rather than any implications communicated, may be the most pleasing and memorable effect of the description.	visual; auditory		HERON IS MACHINE	(our)				29	140		6,8	6,778	L2-H1
040	Here you just have to shroud yourself in the landscape		Qui non resta che cingersi intorno il paesaggio	Zanzotto, Andrea	Ormai	Poetry	8	Cardilli (2020: 171)	Here you just have to shroud yourself in the landscape' (Ormai, l. 8): the image could be conceived of as thematizing the procedure of figural fusion: the common and eponym noun landscape gathers the elements of the previous list (and even all those present in the macrotext of the collection). So compressed, the landscape turns into a garment, an anthropic element that is also somehow anthropomorphic	visual; haptic		LANDSCAPE IS SHROUD	(here)	(text-final)		13	8	40	1	6,2	6,177	W3-B5
041	the marathon runner runs in eternity	[The marathon runner runs in eternity] not to be dead once he will stop the point of arrival will come	[il maratoneta corre in eterno] per non esser morto quando si fermerà arriverà il punto di arrivo	Bordini, Carlo	Assenza	Poetry	63	Mazzoni (2021: xxv)	Among the images that inform this reasoning there is the one of the marathon runner who wants to run forever because the finish line and the party will look trivial to him, compared to the waiting. Shortly before there is a similar image - an insect trapped in the amber, which in theory should only hope to wake up, get out of the resin and come back to life.	visual						11	5	25	1	6,2	6,2	S2
042	like the insect in the amber	everything is over but not everything is over and the present is iced ice [like the insect in the amber]	tutto è finito ma tutto non è finito e il presente è ghiaccio ghiacciato [come l'insetto nell'ambra]	Bordini, Carlo	Assenza	Poetry	58	Mazzoni (2021: xxv)	Among the images that inform this reasoning there is the one of the marathon runner who wants to run forever because the finish line and the party will look trivial to him, compared to the waiting. Shortlly before there is a similar image - an insect trapped in the amber, which in theory should only hope to wake up, get out of the resin and come back to life.	visual	PF (like)	PRESENT IS TRAPPED INSECT				8	5	23	1	6,3	6,294	L2
043	His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide	[His heart danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide]. He heard what her eyes said to him from beneath their cowl and knew that in some dim past, whether in life or revery, he had heard their tale before.		Joyce, James	A portrait of the artist as a young man	Prose (Fiction)		Levina (2017: 210-211)	The harmony, in the epiphany played out as the couple’s dance-like interaction, here is encapsulated inthe metaphorical image of Stephen’s heart that “danced upon her movements like a cork upon a tide” (P 69), up and down to mirror the rhythm of the girl’s physical movements. This is also an image of subjective self- reflection: It focuses our view on Stephen’s sense of himself, as opposed to their commonly performed act.	visual	PF (like)	HEART IS CORK; WOMAN IS TIDE	(his; her)				8	48		6,4	6,393	B1-O2
044	a fox terrier scampering to and fro on the sunny lawn	One day he had stood beside her looking into the hotel grounds. A waiter was running up a trail of bunting on the flagstaff and [a fox terrier was scampering to and fro on the sunny lawn]. She had put her hand into his pocket where his hand was and he had felt how cool and thin and soft her hand was.		Joyce, James	A portrait of the artist as a young man	Prose (Fiction)		Levina (2017: 111)	He remembers a day in the past, when he and another girl (Eileen rather than E– C–,with whom he is on the tram) were looking at a “fox terrier scampering to and fro on the sunny lawn” of a hotel, another image of an oscillating movement	visual	PF (looking into)		(the)				11	43		6,8	6,844	L2
045	two gigantically /outrageous /parasitic /health robbers	This week, [two gigantically outrageous parasitic health robbers] were in the news	twee gigantisch /schandalige /parasitaire /zorgrovers	anonymous	news item	Prose (News)		Burgers et al. (2016: 176)	After all, four lexical units are used hyperbolically to create one image (“gigantisch /schandalige /parasitaire /zorgrovers”; “gigantically /outrageous /parasitic /health robbers”).	visual		HEALTHCARE MANAGERS ARE PARASITES			(list of three)		6	47		6,1	6,147	S2
046	The fringed curtains of thine eye advance	FERDINAND: The ditty does remember my drowned father. / This is no mortal business, nor no sound / That the Earth owes. I hear it now above me. / PROSPERO (to Miranda): [The fringèd curtains of thine eye advance] / And say what thou seest yond. / MIRANDA: What is ’t? A spirit? / Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, / It carries a brave form. But ’tis a spirit		Shakespeare, William	The Tempest (Act I, Scene II)	Drama	405	Richards (2004 [1924]: 105-106)	One of the greatest living critics praises the line: 'The fringed curtain of thine eyes advance', for the ‘ravishing beauty’ of the visual images excited.	visual		EYE IS WINDOW	(the; thine)			10	7	35	1	6,8	6,794	B1-H5
047	we have been able to rise above the brutes			Huxley, Aldous	Adonis and the Alphabet	Prose (Essay)		Verdonk (2013: 142, 156)	The clash of ideas is set forth by the two metaphorical images ‘we have been able to rise above the brutes’ and ‘we have often sunk to the level of the demons’, which effectively refresh our experience that language can be both a blessing and a curse [...] in the metaphoric images ‘we have been able to rise above the brutes’ and ‘we have often sunk to the level of the demons’, the source domain is people’s everyday physical experience of all kinds of spatial orientations, in this case UP-DOWN. The target domains are abstract concepts like VIRTUE (‘living a decent life’) and DEPRAVITY (‘being cruel and destructive’).	visual			(we)		(parallelism)		9	34		4,4	4,353	M1
048	we have often sunk to the level of the demons			Huxley, Aldous	Adonis and the Alphabet	Prose (Essay)		Verdonk (2013: 142, 156)	The clash of ideas is set forth by the two metaphorical images ‘we have been able to rise above the brutes’ and ‘we have often sunk to the level of the demons’, which effectively refresh our experience that language can be both a blessing and a curse [...] in the metaphoric images ‘we have been able to rise above the brutes’ and ‘we have often sunk to the level of the demons’, the source domain is people’s everyday physical experience of all kinds of spatial orientations, in this case UP-DOWN. The target domains are abstract concepts like VIRTUE (‘living a decent life’) and DEPRAVITY (‘being cruel and destructive’).	visual			(we)		(parallelism)		10	36		5,8	5,75	M1-S9
049	I sit at the edge of the universal ear	At this age and with the current times / [I sit at the edge of the universal / ear]; I say 'blond, martial blind sky / where time is round: the truth / is a horrible telescope	A quest’età e con i tempi che corrono, / io [siedo al bordo dell’orecchio / universale]; dico / “biondo, marziale cieco cielo / dove il tempo è rotondo: la verità / è orrendo cannocchiale”.	Annino, Cristina	Caos	Poetry	6	Ortore (2017)	si passa dagli stereotipi linguistici (con i tempi che corrono) alla carezza di un'immagine quasi naïve (siedo al bordo dell'orecchio universale)	visual		EAR IS SPACE	(I; the)			12	6	35	2	6,9	6,853	B1
050	I almost touched the part of my everything and / restrained myself / With a pull at my tongue behind every word	[I almost touched the part of my everything and restrained myself / With a pull at my tongue behind every word]. // Today I feel my chin as I hold it in	[Casi toqué la parte de mi todo y me contuve / con un tiro en la lengua destrás de mi palabra.] // Hoy me palpo el mentón en retirada	Vallejo, César	Hoy me gusta la vida…	Poetry	3-4	Annino (1970: 297)	Le due immagini metaforiche situate nelle prime due strofe: […] sono più costruite, meno spontanee rispetto al contesto generale dove una certa assimilazione del ritmo del parlare quotidiano è innegabile	visual; haptic	PF (touched)		(I; my; myself)			30	20	71	2	6,7	6,742	X3
051	Today I feel my chin as I hold it in	I almost touched the part of my everything and / restrained myself / With a pull at my tongue behind every word. // [Today I feel my chin in retreat]	Casi toqué la parte de mi todo y me contuve / con un tiro en la lengua destrás de mi palabra. // [Hoy me palpo el mentón en retirada]	Vallejo, César	Hoy me gusta la vida…	Poetry	5	Annino (1970: 297)	Le due immagini metaforiche situate nelle prime due strofe: […] sono più costruite, meno spontanee rispetto al contesto generale dove una certa assimilazione del ritmo del parlare quotidiano è innegabile	visual; haptic	PF (feel)		(today; I; my)			11	7	28	1	6,6	6,621	X3
052	The hand holds no chalk	[The hand holds no chalk] / And each part of the whole falls off / and cannot know it knew'		Ashbery, John	Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror	Poetry	last lines	Edelman (1986: 105-106)	For example, we learn in the final image that the hand of the portraitist "holds no chalk" as "each part of the whole falls off" (SP, p. 83), and thus that the phallic instrument of metaphoric representation or self-reproduction is missing or denied	visual; haptic			(the)	(text-final)		5	5	19	1	6,9	6,912	B1
053	Will the hive survive, will the gladiolas / Succeed in banking their fires? / To enter another year?			Plath, Sylvia	Wintering	Poetry	46-48	Perloff (1984: 12)	The imagery of disembodiment and petrifaction ('New statue. / In a drafty museum, your nakedness / shadows our safety') has been noted often enough, but in the framework of Ariel 1, 'Morning song'' is juxtaposedto the last poem in the volume, Wintering, where the potential for rebirth is conveyed by the image of the flower bulb	visual		FLOWER IS FIRE	(the)	(text-final)		26	16	81	3	6,8	6,788	L3
054	The glass cracks across, /The image / Flees and aborts like dropped mercury.			Plath, Sylvia	Thalidomide	Poetry	24-26	Perloff (1984: 12)	in the last lines, the image of the broken mirror, regularly associated with the betraying male, recurs: "The glass cracks across,/The image/Flees and aborts like dropped mercury."	visual; auditory	PF (like)	IMAGE IS MERCURY	(the)	(text-final)		17	12	62	3	6,3	6,286	O1
055	“You may as well go about to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock’s feather.”			Shakespeare, William	Henry V (Act IV, Scene I)	Drama	94	Henry Home Lord Kames (1761), cited in Richards (1936:16)	Lord Karnes comments, “The peacock’s feather, not to mention the beauty of the object, completes the image: an accurate image cannot be formed of that fanciful operation without conceiving a particular feather; and one is at a loss when this is neglected in the description.” (Elements of Criticism, p. 372.)	visual; haptic		PEACOCK FEATHER IS COSMIC FREEZER	(you; his)				22	78	1	6,7	6,656	L2
056	had they rained	Had it pleas’d heaven / To try me with afflictions, [had they rain’d] „ / All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head. Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips. / Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, / I should have found in some part of my soul / A drop of patience ; but alas I to make me / The fixed figure for the time of scorn / To point his slow and moving finger at ; / Yet could I bear that too . well, veiy well. / But there, where I have garner’d up my heart. / Where either I must live or bear no life. / The fountain from the which my current runs. / Or else dries up ; to be discarded thence ! / Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads To knot and gender in I		Shakespeare, William	Othello (Act IV, Scene II)	Drama	58	Richards (1936: 105)	You will have noticed that the whole speech returns again and again to these liquid images . “had they rained,” “a drop of patience,” “The fountain from which my current runs. Or else dries up.”	visual; haptic; auditory		EMOTION IS LIQUID	(they)			3	3	13	1	6,5	6,529	E6-W4
057	a drop of patience	Had it pleas’d heaven / To try me with afflictions, had he rain’d „ / All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head. Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips. / Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, / I should have found in some part of my soul / [A drop of patience] ; but alas I to make me / The fixed figure for the time of scorn / To point his slow and moving finger at ; / Yet could I bear that too . well, veiy well. / But there, where I have garner’d up my heart. / Where either I must live or bear no life. / The fountain from the which my current runs. / Or else dries up ; to be discarded thence ! / Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads To knot and gender in I		Shakespeare, William	Othello (Act IV, scene II)	Drama	63	Richards (1936: 105)	You will have noticed that the whole speech returns again and again to these liquid images . “had they rained,” “a drop of patience,” “The fountain from which my current runs. Or else dries up.”	visual	PF (found)	EMOTION IS LIQUID				5	4	15	1	4,6	4,636	E3-O1.2
058	The fountain from the which my current runs. Or else dries up.	Had it pleas’d heaven / To try me with afflictions, had they rain’d „ / All kinds of sores, and shames, on my bare head. Steep’d me in poverty to the very lips. / Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, / I should have found in some part of my soul / A drop of patience ; but alas I to make me / The fixed figure for the time of scorn / To point his slow and moving finger at ; / Yet could I bear that too . well, veiy well. / But there, where I have garner’d up my heart. / Where either I must live or bear no life. / [The fountain from the which my current runs. / Or else dries up]; to be discarded thence ! / Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads To knot and gender in I		Shakespeare, William	Othello (Act IV, scene II)	Drama	69-70	Richards (1936: 105)	You will have noticed that the whole speech returns again and again to these liquid images . “had they rained,” “a drop of patience,” “The fountain from which my current runs. Or else dries up.”	visual		HEART IS FOUNTAIN	(the; my)			14	12	51	2	6,7	6,735	B1-H1
059	the Holy Ghost over the bent / World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.			Hopkins, G. M.	God's Grandeur	Poetry	13-14	Eagleton (1973: 74)	This is why the final image is crucial. The spinning world has now become an egg over which the Holy Ghost broods. Daylight, after all, isn't a natural, organically inevitable event, but happens only because the Spirit constantly hatches it out of the darkness. If he stopped brooding, dawn would stop springing; the bent world is unable to renew itself out of its own natural resources.	visual; haptic		GOD IS BIRD	(the)	(text-final)		18	16	70	2	6,3	6,257	S9-L3
060	I should have been a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas			Eliot, T. S.	The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock	Poetry	73-74	Borges (1937; in 2010: 97)	The influence of Laforgue is apparent, and sometimes fatal, in these preludes. His construction is languid, but the clarity of certain images is unsurpassable. For example:	visual		PERSON IS ANIMAL PART	(I; the)		(typographically standalone unit)	19	16	69	2	6,7	6,706	S2-L2
061	This said he turn'd, and seem'd as one of those, / Who o'er Verona's champain try their speed / For the green mantle, and of them he seem'd, / Not he who loses but who gains the prize.		Poi si rivolse, e parve di coloro / che corrono a Verona il drappo verde / per la campagna; e parve di costoro / quelli che vince, non colui che perde.	Alighieri, Dante	Inferno XV	Poetry	121-124	Eliot (1919: 7)	The last quatrain gives an image, a feeling attaching to an image, which “came,” which did not develop simply out of what precedes, but which was probably in suspension in the poet’s mind until the proper combination arrived for it to add itself to.	visual	PF (seem'd)		(he; them)	(text-final)		44	28	118	4	6,9	6,882	S2
062	That time of year thou mayst in me behold / When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang			Shakespeare, William	Sonnet 73	Poetry	1-2	Perkins (1983: 315)	The second line induces in the mind's eye of the reader a bri dangling yellow leaves. The images evoke the sense more powerfully than the words alone, a point easily checked by lines while suppressing visual imagery	visual	PF (behold)	PERSON IS WOOD	(thou; me)	(text-initial)		20	18	69	2	6,7	6,735	S2-L3
063	the Thoughts of Home / Rush on his Nerves, and call their Vigour forth / In many a vain Attempt. How sinks his Soul! / What black Despair, what Horror fills his Heart			Thompson, James	Winter	Poetry	286-189	Jung (2013: 588)	The contraction of meaning, the turning of a noun into an adjective, and the shift from the statement of the man’s hopeless isolation and disorientation to the description of his equally hopeless search for a way home, culminate in a poignant image of the shepherd’s psychological devastation	haptic; auditory; interoception		THOUGHTS ARE PEOPLE	(the; his)			34	30	131	4	6,4	6,393	E4-E5
064	With broaden’d Nostrils to the Sky upturn’d, / The conscious Heifer snuffs the stormy Gale. / Even as the Matron, at her nightly Task, / With pensive Labour draws the flaxen Thread, / The wasted Taper and the crackling Flame / Foretel the Blast. But chief the plumy Race, / The Tenants of the Sky, its Changes speak. / Retiring from the Downs, where all Day long / They pick’d their scanty Fare, a blackening Train / Of clamorous Rooks thick-urge their weary Flight, / And seek the closing Shelter of the Grove			Thompson, James	Winter	Poetry	132-142	Jung (2013: 591)	Man and animal are related to each other in that the taper representing the domestic realm of the “Matron” at work at night provides an analogous foretelling of the “Blast.” In this complex image of nature’s response to the storm, Thomson, while presenting the heifer, matron, and birds sequentially, aims to contract all beings into a realm of simultaneity.	visual; olfactory; auditory;	PF (broaden'd Nostrils)		(the; her; they)			110	83	408	11	6,8	6,824	L2-W4
065	A louely Ladie rode him faire beside, / Vpon a lowly Asse more white then snow, / Yet she much whiter, but the same did hide / Vnder a vele, that wimpled was full low, / And ouer all a blacke stole shee did throw, / As one that inly mournd: so was she sad, / And heauie sat vpon her palfrey slow; / Seemed in heart some hidden care she had / And by her in a line a milkewhite lambe she lad.			Spenser, Edmund	The Faerie Queene 1.1.4	Poetry	1-9	Falck (2013: 17)	His descriptions of such moments are either extremely vague, or deliberate, though not obvious, descriptions of the in- describable.40 Spenser’s introduction of Una purportedly offers useful visual clues, but cumulatively stresses her inadequacy as a signifying image:	visual	PF (beside)	WOMAN IS SNOW	(she; her; him)	(text-initial)		90	76	299	9	6,8	6,844	S2
066	What’s a Protector he’s a stately thing / That Apes it in the non-age of a King. / A Tragic Actor, Caesar in a Clowne / He’s a brass farthing, stamped with a Crowne. /. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .			Anonymous	Untitled	Poetry		Cohen (2010: 158)	here the coin’s image operates to signify value as well as cultural memory. The register of coinage and in particular the accusation of counterfeiting presents an opportunity to interrupt the manufacturing of official memory and the determination of value, derailing what Foucault called the “deferred exchange” at the heart of monetary representation.	visual; auditory		PERSON IS COIN	(he)			40	35	129	4	6,8	6,765	S2
067	There I met him, like some ghost, I suppose.			Brontë, Jane Emily	Villette	Prose (Fiction)		Hughes (2000: 720)	This concern with the liminal status of remembered images and feelings, with respect to chronology, consciousness, and the material world, can obviously be related to many further aspects of the text not yet fully discussed, for instance, its recurrent vocabulary of ghosts, apparitions, and reflections—its vocabulary of a world haunted by disembodied images:	visual	PFs (met, like)	PERSON IS GHOST	(I; him)				9	36		5,3	5,273	S2-S9
068	She came, however, instantly, like a small ghost gliding over the carpet.			Brontë, Jane Emily	Villette	Prose (Fiction)		Hughes (2000: 720)	This concern with the liminal status of remembered images and feelings, with respect to chronology, consciousness, and the material world, can obviously be related to many further aspects of the text not yet fully discussed, for instance, its recurrent vocabulary of ghosts, apparitions, and reflections—its vocabulary of a world haunted by disembodied images:	visual; haptic	PFs (came, like)	PERSON IS GHOST	(she; the)				12	62		6,3	6,343	S2-S9
069	I should have understood what we call a ghost, as well as I did the commonest object	At first I knew nothing I looked on: a wall was not a wall—a lamp not a lamp. [I should have understood what we call a ghost, as well as I did the commonest object]; which is another way of intimating that all my eye rested on struck it as spectral. But the faculties soon settled each in its place		Brontë, Jane Emily	Villette	Prose (Fiction)		Hughes (2000: 720)	This concern with the liminal status of remembered images and feelings, with respect to chronology, consciousness, and the material world, can obviously be related to many further aspects of the text not yet fully discussed, for instance, its recurrent vocabulary of ghosts, apparitions, and reflections—its vocabulary of a world haunted by disembodied images:	visual	PFs (looked on; understood; as well as)	THINGS ARE GHOSTS	(I; we)				17	68		5,3	5,273	S9-O2
070	the third person as well as the other two—and for the fraction of a moment, believed them all strangers	I noted them all—[the third person as well as the other two—and for the fraction of a moment, believed them all strangers], thus receiving an impartial impression of their appearance. But the impression was hardly felt and not fixed, before the consciousness that I faced a great mirror . . . the party was our own party.		Brontë, Jane Emily	Villette	Prose (Fiction)		Hughes (2000: 720)	This concern with the liminal status of remembered images and feelings, with respect to chronology, consciousness, and the material world, can obviously be related to many further aspects of the text not yet fully discussed, for instance, its recurrent vocabulary of ghosts, apparitions, and reflections—its vocabulary of a world haunted by disembodied images:	visual	PFs (noted; believed)		(them)				20	85		6,1	6,147	S2
071	The golden sun in splendour likest heaven / Allured his eye	then from pole to pole / He views in breadth, and without longer pause / Down right into the world’s first region throws / His flight precipitant, and winds with ease / Through the pure marble air his oblique way / Amongst innumerable stars, that shone / Stars distant, but nigh hand seemed other worlds, / Or other worlds they seemed, or happy isles, / Like those Hesperian gardens famed of old, / Fortunate fields, and groves and flowery vales, / Thrice happy isles, but who dwellt happy there / He stayed not to inquire: above them all / [The golden sun in splendour likest heaven / Allured his eye]: thither his course he bends.		Milton, John	Paradise Lost, Book III	Poetry	560-573	Staykova (2013: 163)	Then it erupts into violent motion as Satan, no longer lingering to watch stars recede into darkness, continues his “oblique” journey toward the bright spot of the sun, an image more alluring than the rest:	visual	PFs (likest;allured his eye)	SUN IS HEAVEN	(his)			14	10	48	2	6,8	6,794	W1-S9
072	As when a griffin through the wilderness / With wingèd course o’er hill or moory dale, / Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth / Had from his wakeful custody purloined / The guarded gold: so eagerly the fiend / O’er bog or steep, through straight, rough, dense, or rare, / With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way.			Milton, John	Paradise Lost, Book II	Poetry	943-9	Staykova (2013: 173)	This integration of movement with mass to convey a heavier, emphatic pace is portrayed in the griffin simile (2.943–9) that likens Satan winging his course through the wastes of chaos to the mythological griffin pursuing the Arimaspian thieves. The pained and strenuous movement of the winged creature (Whaler defines the point of comparison as the “eager but laborious speed of wings”) slows down the motion and holds the scene in focus.26 Grammatical tenses shift to capture the image in a protracted present moment:	visual	PF (as when)	ENEMY IS ANIMAL				70	53	260	7	6,9	6,912	L2-S9
073	How like a deer, strooken by many princes, Dost thou here lie!	Pardon me, Julius! Here wast thou bay’d, brave hart, / Here didst thou fall, and here thy hunters stand, / Sign’d in thy spoil, and crimson’d in thy lethe. / O world! thou wast the forest to this hart, / And this indeed, O world, the heart of thee. [How like a deer, strooken by many princes, Dost thou here lie!]		Shakespeare, William	Julius Caesar (Act III, Scene I)	Drama	215-221	Carson (2005: 537)	Confronting the conspirators, Antony invokes a powerfully poignant image: he paints the fallen Caesar as a noble yet helpless stag. Bayed, the Roman emperor finds he cannot claw his way out, but must submit to the fatal violence of the treasonous mob.	visual; haptic	PF (like)	PERSON IS ANIMAL	(me; here; thou; thee; thy; this)			14	12	51	1	6,8	6,767	S2-L2
074	The Stag no hope had left, nor help did ’spy, / His Heart so heavy grew with Grief and Care, / That his small Feet his Body scarce could bear; / Yet loath to Dye, or yield to Foes was he, / And to the last would strive for Victory.			Cavendish, Margaret	The hunting of a stag	Poetry	120-124	Carson (2005: 547)	While Cavendish and Denham use the image of the deer as an object of pity and also as a vessel through which people might vicariously experience desperation and pain, Andrew Marvell utilizes his fawn in a slightly different manner.	visual			(the; his; he)			50	46	178	5	6,8	6,788	L2
075	I Hope, some true Historian will impart, / his Observations on this Royall HART; / which was so Foully Hunted, and became, / so great a Prey; to such as scorn'd			Sadler, Anthony	The Loyall Mourner, Shewing the Murdering of King Charles the First Shewing the Restoring of King Charles the Second., 2d edn. (London, 1648, 1660), p. 6, see. VI	Poetry	140-144	Carson (2005: 550)	In an elegy published the year of Charles's execution and later presented to Charles II upon his restoration to the throne, Anthony Sadler, depending on the usual litany of mournful prayer and funereal utterance, also incorporates the image of the hunted hart	visual	PF (Observations)		(this)		(rhyme)	40	28	127	4	6	5,964	L2
076	I shall put you in mind, sir: at Pie Corner, / Taking your meal of steam in from cooks’ stalls, / Where, like the father of hunger, you did walk / Piteously costive, with your pinched-horn nose / . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When you went pinned up in the several rags / You’d raked and picked from dunghills before day, / Your feet in moldy slippers for your kibes, / A felt of rug, and a thin threaden cloak / That scarce would cover your no-buttocks.			Johnson, Ben	The Alchemist, Act I, Scene I	Drama	25-37	Gail Kern Paster (1987), cited in Mulder (2021: 68)	In a germinal reading of the scene, Gail Kern Paster argues that “Subtle and Face each try to set before the other’s memorializing imagination the image of an embarrassing earlier body, as if the past self-in-the-body were the inner, the naked, the irreducible self making the present construction shamefully transparent and inessential.	visual	PFs (put you in mind; like)	PERSON IS HUNGER	(you; your; sir)			90	76	336	9	6,8	6,828	S2-B1
077	a bell	Subtle. He first shall have [a bell], that’s Abel; / And by it standing one whose name is Dee, / In a rug gown; there’s D, and rug, that’s Drug; / And right anenst him, a Dog snarling “er”— / There’s Drugger, Abel Drugger. That’s his sign.		Johnson, Ben	The Alchemist, Act II, Scene IV	Drama	19	Mulder (2021: 72)	Subtle describes a series of images he envisions for Drugger:	visual; auditory			(he; his)		(parallelism; list)	2	2	5	1	6,7	6,735	O2
078	one whose name is Dee, / In a rug gown	Subtle. He first shall have a bell, that’s Abel; / And by it standing [one whose name is Dee, / In a rug gown]; there’s D, and rug, that’s Drug; / And right anenst him, a Dog snarling “er”— / There’s Drugger, Abel Drugger. That’s his sign.		Johnson, Ben	The Alchemist, Act II, Scene IV	Drama	20-21	Mulder (2021: 72)	Subtle describes a series of images he envisions for Drugger:	visual	PF (by it standing)		(he; his)		(parallelism; list)	9	9	28	2	5,8	5,774	S2
079	a Dog snarling “er”	Subtle. He first shall have a bell, that’s Abel; / And by it standing one whose name is Dee, / In a rug gown; there’s D, and rug, that’s Drug; / And right anenst him, [a Dog snarling “er”]— / There’s Drugger, Abel Drugger. That’s his sign.		Johnson, Ben	The Alchemist, Act II, Scene IV	Drama	22	Mulder (2021: 72)	Subtle describes a series of images he envisions for Drugger:	visual; auditory	PF (right anenst him)		(he; his)		(parallelism; list)	5	4	16	1	6,9	6,889	L2
080	a strong mast that lived upon the sea,	I saw your brother, / Most provident in peril, bind himself, / Courage and hope both teaching him the practice, / To [a strong mast that lived upon the sea], / Where, like Arion on the dolphin’s back, / I saw him hold acquaintance with the waves / So long as I could see.		Shakespeare, William	Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Act I, Scene II	Drama	11-17	Mentz (2019: 390)	The sexual image of the strong mast and the pun on female genitalia in “acquaintance” contrast Sebastian’s erotic swimming with Ferdinand’s struggle—though Ferdinand’s island princess fantasy also anticipates sexist Polynesian tall tales from Melville to Paul Gauguin.	visual	PF (saw)	MAST IS PERSON				9	8	31	1	6,7	6,706	H2
081	The slave ship at sea	[The slave ship at sea] produced an African narrative of persistent and often lonely attempts among the captives to continue to function as subjective beings—persons possessing independent will and agency. Women who exhausted themselves to death in their futile efforts to attend to the needs of their infants; captives who helped care for one another when disease invariably struck; and strangers who facilitated communication between speakers of mutually-unintelligible languages—by such simple acts, all demonstrated the determination required to live as a human being rather than exist as an object aboard the slave ship at sea. (122		Smallwood, Stephanie	Saltwater slavery: a middle passage from Africa to America	Prose (academic)		Gikandi (2015: 89)	The image of the ships crossing this passage would be imagined by Paul Gilroy as a trope for mapping black responses to “modernity’s promise and failures” (5)	visual				(text-initial)			5	17		6,7	6,706	M4
082	bosoms heave	With bliss botanic as their [bosoms heave], / Still pluck forbidden fruit, with mother Eve, / For puberty in sighing florets pant, / Or point the prostitution of a plant; / Dissect its organ of unhallow'd lust, / And fondly gaze the titillating dust.		Polwele, Richard	The unsex'd females, a poem	Poetry	29-34	Lafleur (2013: 94)	This series of lusty images—heaving bosoms, "forbidden fruit," "pant[ing]," "prostitution," and the plant's "organ of unhallow'd lust"—render Pol whele's tract perhaps more pornographic than even Loves of the Plants, the poem it satirizes	visual; haptic			(their)			3	2	11	1	5,2	5,242	B1
083	forbidden fruit	With bliss botanic as their bosoms heave, / Still pluck [forbidden fruit], with mother Eve, / For puberty in sighing florets pant, / Or point the prostitution of a plant; / Dissect its organ of unhallow'd lust, / And fondly gaze the titillating dust.		Polwele, Richard	The unsex'd females, a poem	Poetry	29-34	Lafleur (2013: 94)	This series of lusty images—heaving bosoms, "forbidden fruit," "pant[ing]," "prostitution," and the plant's "organ of unhallow'd lust"—render Pol whele's tract perhaps more pornographic than even Loves of the Plants, the poem it satirizes	visual		GENITALIA IS FRUIT				4	2	14	1	6,8	6,8	L3
084	pant	With bliss botanic as their bosoms heave, / Still pluck forbidden fruit, with mother Eve, / For puberty in sighing florets [pant], / Or point the prostitution of a plant; / Dissect its organ of unhallow'd lust, / And fondly gaze the titillating dust.		Polwele, Richard	The unsex'd females, a poem	Poetry	29-34	Lafleur (2013: 94)	This series of lusty images—heaving bosoms, "forbidden fruit," "pant[ing]," "prostitution," and the plant's "organ of unhallow'd lust"—render Pol whele's tract perhaps more pornographic than even Loves of the Plants, the poem it satirizes	auditory		PUBERTY IS PERSON				1	1	4	1			B1
085	prostitution	With bliss botanic as their bosoms heave, / Still pluck forbidden fruit, with mother Eve, / For puberty in sighing florets pant, / Or point the [prostitution] of a plant; / Dissect its organ of unhallow'd lust, / And fondly gaze the titillating dust.		Polwele, Richard	The unsex'd females, a poem	Poetry	29-34	Lafleur (2013: 94)	This series of lusty images—heaving bosoms, "forbidden fruit," "pant[ing]," "prostitution," and the plant's "organ of unhallow'd lust"—render Pol whele's tract perhaps more pornographic than even Loves of the Plants, the poem it satirizes	visual		PLANT IS SEX WORKER				4	1	12	1	6	6 (prostitute)	G2
086	organ of unhallow'd lust	With bliss botanic as their bosoms heave, / Still pluck forbidden fruit, with mother Eve, / For puberty in sighing florets pant, / Or point the prostitution of a plant; / Dissect its [organ of unhallow'd lust], / And fondly gaze the titillating dust.		Polwele, Richard	The unsex'd females, a poem	Poetry	29-34	Lafleur (2013: 94)	This series of lusty images—heaving bosoms, "forbidden fruit," "pant[ing]," "prostitution," and the plant's "organ of unhallow'd lust"—render Pol whele's tract perhaps more pornographic than even Loves of the Plants, the poem it satirizes	visual			(its)			5	4	21	1	5,8	5,774	B1
087	passion had not subsided into a calm, and have drooped, like the rose, or lilly, on its dislocated stalk			Mann, Herman	The female review	Prose (biography)		Lafleur (2013: 122)	This reader should understand why Sampson's Baltimore lover's "passion had not subsided into a calm, and have drooped, like the rose, or lilly, on its dislocated stalk." This obviously phallic image offers a fascinating botanical and metaphoric illustration of Mann's narrator's understanding of the possibility for sexual love between a woman and a mannish woman, or a woman living as a man.	visual	PF (like)	EMOTION IS FLOWER					19	86		6,8	6,824	E2-L3
088	we are / Almost as like eggs	Thou wantst a rough pash and the shoots that I have, / To be full like me. Yet they say [we are / Almost as like as eggs]—women say so, / That will say anything		Shakespeare, William	The winter's tale, Act I, Scene II	Drama	128-131	Passannante (2013: 996)	The eggs here are proverbial, and Leontes mentions them almost in passing, but the image points us to one of the larger problems of the play: how we know for certain the things we think we know. These eggs recall a discussion about the nature of knowledge from Cicero's Academica where we find Lucullus, the Stoic representative in the dialogue, debating with the skeptics, who hold that certain knowledge is impossible. The example of the eggs comes up when Lucullus is refuting the contention that false presentations are not discernible from true ones and responding to the various instances of resemblance the skeptics used to make their case (twins, eggs, seals in wax). For the Stoics, the experience of examining eggs—which often look alike— shows how close inspection can reveal small differences between seemingly identical object	visual	PF (as like as)	PEOPLE ARE EGGS				7	6	26	2	6,6	6,647	S2-L2
089	Cannon's face	Did you ever look in a [Cannon’s face] – / Between whose Yellow eye – / And your’s – the Judgment intervened – / The Question of “To die” – / Extemporizing in your ear / As cool as Satyr’s Drums – / If you remember, and were saved – / It’s liker so – it seems –		Dickinson, Emily	639	Poetry	1	Petrino (2018: 241)	In a strikingly similar image written during the Civil War, Emily Dickinson invokes the cannon’s “face” that confronts the soldier, who is left with a view of life that is fitter for one who has died:	visual	PF (look into)	WEAPON IS PERSON		(text-initial)		3	3	12	1	6,4	6,414	G3-B1
090	cannon's mouth	Is this he who scorn’d / His heaven sworn duties, and his humble home, / And chose his pittance from the [cannon’s mouth]?”		Sigourney, Lydia	The Volunteer	Poetry	48-50	Petrino (2018: 241)	In a strikingly similar image written during the Civil War, Emily Dickinson invokes the cannon’s “face” that confronts the soldier, who is left with a view of life that is fitter for one who has died:	visual		WEAPON IS PERSON	(the)			3	3	13	1	6,7	6,69	G3-B1
091	broken heart					Discourse		Franke (1997: 400)	Finally, its generally comprehensible lyrics contain nu- merous cliches, the most prominent of which is certainly the image of the "broken heart".	visual		HEART IS OBJECT					2	11		6,4	6,393	B1-O2
092	parched Corolla / Like Azure dried	The Gentian has a [parched Corolla - / Like Azure dried] / ’Tis Nature’s buoyant juices / Beatified - / Without a vaunt or sheen / As casual as Rain / And as benign - / When most is past - it comes - Nor isolate it seems - / It’s Bond it’s Friend - / To fill it’s Fringed career / And aid an aged Year Abundant end - / It’s lot - were it forgot - / This Truth endear - / Fidelity is gain / Creation o’er-		Dickinson, Emily	458	Poetry	1-2	Kang (2018: 245)	In this poem, the most striking image about the gentian is its “parched Corolla” which resembles “Azure dried.” The phrases “parched” and “dried” suggest the loss of water from heat. In terms of texture, the gentian does not differ from other plants. Why does Dickinson emphasize its dryness? Loeffelholz observes that this poem, probably inspired by Dickinson’s herbarium, challenges the implication of this plant and “other cultural construct about female bodily agedness.”	visual; haptic	PF (like)	FLOWER IS PRECIOUS STONE		(text-initial)		9	5	28	2	6,8	6,788	L3
093	A woman exposed as rock / has this advantage: / she controls the harbor			Glück, Louise	Aphrodite	Poetry	1-3	Bartczak (2021: 79)	Hence images such as the one from “Aphrodite” where “A woman exposed as rock / has this advantage: / she controls the harbor” (First Four 141). On the surface, this can be a metaphor of a psychological defense against patriarchal oppression; but read in the context of the entire metaphysical system of this poetry, it is an image of the female subject divesting herself of sexuality which is seen as barren and “wounded,” always-already possessed by the big Other, which is death itself.	visual	PF (exposed, as)	WOMAN IS ROCK	(she; this)	(text-initial)		18	12	56	3	6,6	6,606	S2-O2
094	Or how the tree that formerly had white fruit / Now bears black ones, because they were sprinkled with blood		Donec idem passa est. An, quae poma alba ferebat, / Ut nunc nigra ferat contactu sanguinis arbor	Ovid	Metamorphoses (Pyramus and Thisbe, Book IV)	Poetry	51-52	van Peer and Chesnokova (2023: 144)	And then this image is taken up at the end of the poem:	visual		TREE IS ANIMAL/PERSON	(now)			30	16	79	2	6,7	6,69	L3-B1

Overview of the database (VILD)

Welcome to the Verbal Images in Literature Database (VILD). At the time of writing [30/11/23] VILD contains 94 manually pre-annotated verbal images from a variety of authors and genres. Each verbal image occupies a row of the database; each column adds relevant contextual information (the poem, play or novel hosting the image, its genre, author, the critic who noticed it) as well as stylistic information (the size of the image counted in syllables and words, its location within the hosting text, the presence of metaphor and deixis, and more). Stylistic data is either quantitative (discrete, as in the number of syllables; or continuous as in imageability ratings) or qualitative (nominal: as in the critical comments provided or the semantic domains assigned; or nominal and binary as the presence or absence of a characteristic).

VILD is an offshoot of the larger project "Verbal to visual: the image in poetic discourse", financially supported by the Research Council of Lithuania under grant Nr 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-19-0204 and which ran from September 2020 to August 2022.

Parameters (columns)

Text and context

Verbal image: an imageable stretch of text
Verbal image + co-text: the verbal image and surrounding text
Verbal image (orig. if not EN): the image in its original non-English language
Author: who crafted the image, e.g. Shakespeare or Whitman
Text: the hosting text, e.g. Othello or In a Station of the Metro
Genre: poetry, drama, prose (fiction, essay, news)
Line(s): line number(s) in verse texts
Noted by: the critic who noticed the image (author-date style)
Full comment: the critic's commentary, always including the word 'image'

Stylistic information

Sense(s) elicited: visual, aural, olfactory, haptic, gustatory
Perception flag (PF): words explicitly signalling that an act of perception is occurring
Metaphor: conceptual mapping in SMALL CAPS (e.g. FACES ARE PETALS)
Deixis: indexical words pointing to a context — you, today, here, this
Foregrounding (position): text-initial or text-final images stand out more
Foregrounding (devices): parallelism, negation, list of three, rhyme
Size: length in syllables, words, characters, and lines
IMAG rate of Head: imageability rating of the most vivid word (The Glasgow Norms)
Thematic core: semantic domain label from the USAS tagset (e.g. B1, L3, S2)

Nearly all parameters (except Sense(s) elicited, Size and Thematic core) likely act as image boosters, enhancing the perceived vividness and memorability of a verbal image.

What are verbal images?

Verbal images are stretches of text with a higher-than-chance potential to trigger mental images and vivid sensations in readers. They construct sensorially rich fictional worlds whilst attracting critics' interpretive efforts — eliciting immersive presence effects and paving the way to symbolic significance.

How are they made?

Verbal images often coincide with descriptive phrases, narrative clauses, and image-metaphors, but they are argued to be an even more fundamental unit of literary meaning. Their most prominent characteristics are imageable vocabulary and metaphor, plus an average length of 18 syllables or 13 words. Recurrent ancillary characteristics include stylistic strategies (lists, parallelism, deixis, topic shifts, negation) that act as imagery boosters. Typical semantic domains relate to the body, people, animals, plants, and the environment.

How was the database compiled?

Verbal images were manually collected from academic literary criticism. Two conditions had to be met:

The scholar used the word 'image(s)' in commentary — near-synonyms like 'scene', 'figure' or 'picture' were excluded.
The word 'image(s)' explicitly refers to a specific stretch of text that is quoted or unequivocally recoverable.

About one third of the images were contributed by former student Ugnė Spečiūtė. The compiler is not listed as a critic to prevent personal theorising from affecting the data.

Languages

Mostly English; a few examples in French, Italian, and Spanish, all with accompanying English translations.

Who might use it?

A writer, poet, artist or content creator looking for inspiration on how canonical authors described specific entities
A teacher wanting customised example sets for imagination or interpretation exercises
A literary scholar interested in how verbal images have been interpreted
A (cognitive) linguist interested in linguistic resources for sensory experience
A psychologist or psycholinguist needing controlled stimuli — verbal images as ROIs for eye-tracking studies
An AI researcher or developer wanting well-crafted, highly picturable linguistic prompts

Can I contribute?

Yes — the database is open-ended and growing. You can contribute by:

Finding new verbal images meeting both conditions above and emailing them to davide.castiglione@flf.vu.lt (include the original paper as PDF)
Assisting with a corpus of academic literary criticism articles
Flagging inaccuracies or suggesting improvements — annotation for meter and syntax is particularly needed

Students and passionate readers are also welcome. Contact Davide if you want to be involved in empirical studies, surveys, statistical analysis, or applying the model to other languages.

Davide Castiglione

Researcher in stylistics and cognitive poetics.
Vilnius University, Faculty of Philology.

davide.castiglione@flf.vu.lt

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