Thomas Hardy wrote “The Darkling Thrush” in 1899 and published it in 1900. The poem, which describes with vivid imagery a desolate winter landscape, is about the turn of the 20th century. The speaker looks upon the coming century with despair, but the gloomy meditation is interrupted by the bright song of a thrush, who brings a dose of hope to the scene. Hardy uses a variety of imagery to illustrate his vision of the landscape as well as his reflections on history.

Skills: analysis, drawing inferences from text, close reading, identifying the relationship between words

About This Document

The Owl Eyes Imagery activity gives students an opportunity to practice identifying and analyzing imagery. Imagery within a text creates a sensory experience that can connect readers to a text’s setting, atmosphere, or overall aesthetic. Studying imagery will help students understand how narrators or principal characters feel. The main components of this worksheet include the following:

• A brief introduction to the text
• A handout on types of imagery with examples from classic texts
• A step-by-step guide to activity procedure
• Selected examples of imagery from the text

In completing this worksheet, students will learn to identify and analyze different kinds of imagery in order to develop close reading skills and identify the effect imagery has on their reading experience.