Imagery Analysis: In the Empire of Genghis Khan – Prologue by Stanley Stewart

The olfactory of the ‘scent of grass’ and ‘freshly mown grass’, is a distinguishable smell that can place the reader to inside the story.

Tactile imagery is conveyed through the ‘skinned knees’ and his grandmother brushing and straightening his clothes. 

The story is brought to life by the sound of the stallion prancing through a pile of autumn leaves.  I close my eyes and can hear the vivid sound of crunching leaves.  The ‘galloping’ horse, closing my eyes, I can hear the horses’ hooves.  His grandmother’s voice is vivid, ‘looping…like a rope’; ‘long lasso’; and ‘the mooring of’.

Visual imagery follows a theme of twilight, ‘atmosphere of twilight and of horses’, ‘evenings, in the long dusk’, ‘when it grew dark’, ‘each evening in the slow descent of an Irish twilight’.  The organic imagery I feel when reading this was gloom, ‘between the graves’, ‘galloping between the trees in the thickening gloom’.

The visual language used gives me a clear picture of the village, from ‘top of an Irish village with views…to the Mountains’, ‘raised pavement…along the churchyard wall…arch of lime trees’, ‘freshly mown grass and piles of autumn leaves’, ‘sat in a throne of leaves…Mountains…shouldered the horizon’, ‘the mountains were dark and mesmerising’.  ‘Skinned knees…leaves in my hair’, I can visualise the boy coming home from a day of adventures.

The kinaesthetic language, ‘fallen’; ‘pranced’; ‘leapt’; ‘galloping’; ‘tugged’, makes the story present. 

Stewart used similes like ‘her voice looping in the lingering twilight like a rope’.  This line is alliteration for the use of ‘l’, as well as ‘long lasso’, and ‘m’ for ‘mysterious Mongolians’.

There is a strong use of assonance: ‘knees and leaves’, long ‘e’ sound; ‘played…raised pavement…ran…churchyard wall…an arch…’, long ‘a’ sound; ‘stopped…thrones of…south …Mountains of Mourne shouldered the horizon…’, long ‘o’ sound; ‘I liked its unruliness…its ambiguities…live up…idea…it…imply’, long ‘u’ and short ‘i’ sound.