The effect of images on poetry Images are perhaps the most important tool that a writer must possess to be considered great. The image can be defined as the representation through the language of sensory experience (Arp, 607). This means that anything written that can be connected to one of our senses, for example taste or smell. Say no to plagiarism "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Seamus Heaneys "The Forge" provides us with numerous examples of images that touch many of our senses ' more confusing than helpful. It touches on so many senses by putting a blurry image in my mind rather than a sharp, clear image of our senses, sight and smell. It describes how things look and sound. Heaney only briefly tells how things look or sound. Then our imagination takes this and forms a memory of something similar that we saw. Everyone has seen an iron hoop or a rusty axle and that's why Heaney mentions them here. We should imagine a quaint house, perhaps a farm, with these items outside leaning against an old garage. The old rusty hoops and boards are how the narrator imagines himself. Heaney writes “The short tone ring of the hammered anvil” (Heaney, 612). This makes me think of an old alarm clock that needs to be wound twice a day to ensure it works properly. The anvil is the push that tells the man that his time may be almost up. Thanks to this push he is searching for what it means to truly live. Man has come to realize that life is as unpredictable as a “flash of sparks, or a hiss as a new shoe hardens in water” (Heaney, 613). Heaney includes this phrase because the man looks back on his life and much is simply repetition and we live for the sparks or fleeting moments. I think the new hardening of shoes in water represents the new knowledge we strive to acquire in life. The rest of this poem describes the anvil. The anvil represents everything that concerns man, his actions, his attitude and his life. The person dies or becomes an adult at the end of the poem. “The grunt and enters, with a crash and a bang, to strike the real iron, to make the bellows work” (Heaney, 613). I believe these last two lines mean the end of man's life because it seems like the iron anvil is being destroyed, or coming of age as the iron anvil transforms into something more important and valuable. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay All in all, I believe the narrator has described what drives us and makes us act the way we do. I also believe that man eventually dies. There are many points I'm not sure about, like the ending. I'm not sure if the person dies or grows up. However I think this is perhaps the best poem I have read.