Home › Glossary › Letter H

Haptic imagery

Imagery
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Imagery that evokes the sense of touch—texture, temperature, pressure, or physical sensation—to create immersive, tactile poetic experience.

Detailed Definition
Haptic imagery: Sensory language that evokes the sense of touch—texture, temperature, pressure, or physical contact—inviting readers to “feel” the poem through descriptions of rough bark, cool silk, or crushing weight, deepening embodied response.
Example
Example in poetry:
Haptic imagery evokes touch and physical sensation: Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” (“soft incense hangs upon the boughs”); Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” (“the vivid redness hurts me”); Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City” (“I held your hand until it turned to glass”); Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day” (“I don’t know exactly what a prayer is, but I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass”); contemporary poet Ada Limón uses tactile details like “the rough bark of the oak.”
Additional Notes
Imagery appealing to touch sensation. Texture, temperature, pressure. Related: sensory imagery, tactile. Study: how touch differs from visual in creating presence.
Also Known As
Touch imagery Tactile sensation Textural description Physical feeling Textural Imagery Conceit Tactile
Skip to main content