IMAGERY IN LANGSTON HUGHES’S POETRY

Abstract

The objectives of conducting this research were to find out the types of imagery and describe the functions of imagery found in Langston Hughes’s poetry. The researcher used qualitative method with descriptive approach in this study. The researcher used the theory of Imagery of Arp & Perrine (1991) in analyzing the use of imagery in the poetry. The result of the study shows that there were 53 instances of imagery in 20 poems of Langston Hughes. The most dominant types 30 (56,60%) was Visual Imagery. Another functions 3 (5,66 %) was auditory imagery; 2 (3,77%) was olfactory imagery; 1(1,89%) was gustatory imagery; 2 (3,77 %) was tactile imagery; 7 (13,21 %) was organic imagery; 8 (15,09 %) was kinesthetic imagery. The most dominant type of imagery that appears in the twenty poems was visual imagery because it functions to represent the things which the readers can directly imagine and see. Another function of imagery which appears in the twenty poems of Langston Hughes is to create the movement in the poem, the readers’ imagination and to build the readers’ inner feeling, the smell and taste, and to feel the fictional world.

Keywords: Langston Hughes’s Poetry, Imagery, and the Functions of Imagery.