An image is the representation of sensory information in words. Thus, visual imagery would describe something we could see, olfactory imagery describes something we could smell, auditory imagery describes something we might hear, gustatory imagery describes something we could taste, and tactile imagery describes something we might touch. One particularly striking image in this poem is the "blue spurt of a lighted match" referenced in line 10. The reason this image is so striking is that it actually combines two kinds of sensory information: the visual and the auditory. Imagery that combines two or more senses is called synesthesia. We can imagine the sight of the "blue" color that leaps from the tip of the match when struck as well as the sound of the "spurt" the lit match makes. In addition, "spurt" is a word that is usually associated with liquid: water spurts from a fountain, liquid spurts from someone's mouth when they laugh after taking a drink, and so forth. To describe something nonliquid, then, as "spurt[ing]" is attention-grabbing and really shows us how quickly the match seems to light once struck, how the initial blue flame would look in such darkness.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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