The vivid imagery in “Sea Fever” helps establish the poem’s setting, tone, and point of view. Aside from conveying a multi-sensory depiction of the sea, the imagery reveals the speaker’s extreme familiarity with and fondness for the sea. His loving descriptions of life on the ocean establish the passionate, yearning tone of the poem. Have students identify examples of imagery in the poem with the help of storyboards. You can direct students to find particular types of imagery (visual, auditory, or tactile for this poem) or simply ask them to label the examples that they find.
"a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking"
"the sea gulls crying"
"the flung spray and the blown spume"
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Student Instructions
Create a storyboard depicting the different types of imagery in "Sea Fever".
Invite students to take a short walk around the school or playground, focusing on using their senses to observe their surroundings. Encourage them to notice sights, sounds, and textures, just like the imagery in "Sea Fever." This hands-on experience helps students connect sensory details in poetry to the real world.
Gather students and ask them to share what they saw, heard, and felt during the walk. List their observations on the board under visual, auditory, and tactile headings. This reinforces the types of imagery and makes abstract concepts more concrete.
Encourage each student to select at least one detail from each sensory category and write a three-line poem. Model this process with your own example first. This step helps students apply sensory imagery in their own writing, building confidence and creativity.
Ask students to draw a simple illustration that matches one or more lines from their poem. This visual element reinforces the connection between words and images, mirroring the storyboard activity for "Sea Fever." Creative expression deepens understanding of imagery.
Imagery in "Sea Fever" refers to the use of descriptive language that appeals to the senses—sight, sound, and touch—to create a vivid picture of life at sea. John Masefield uses visual, auditory, and tactile imagery to immerse readers in the ocean's atmosphere.
Students can find imagery in "Sea Fever" by looking for lines that evoke visual (what is seen), auditory (what is heard), and tactile (what is felt) experiences. Using a storyboard template, they can label and illustrate each type with quotes from the poem.
Examples include visual imagery: "a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking"; auditory imagery: "the sea gulls crying"; and tactile imagery: "the flung spray and the blown spume."
Teaching imagery in "Sea Fever" helps middle school students develop close reading skills, understand poetic devices, and enhance their ability to interpret and visualize descriptive language in literature.
Use a storyboard activity where students label and illustrate examples of visual, auditory, and tactile imagery from the poem. This hands-on approach makes learning engaging and reinforces understanding of literary devices.