Home › Glossary › Letter T

temporal 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 in verse that symbolizes or evokes the passage or qualities of time

Detailed Definition
Temporal imagery uses references to time—seasons, clocks, decay, growth, or historical markers—to evoke mood, theme, or philosophical reflection; it may contrast cyclical natural time with linear human time, or use temporal symbols (hourglass, ruins) to meditate on mortality, as in Shakespeare’s sonnets where “Time’s scythe” threatens beauty but poetry offers preservation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Temporal imagery uses time-related symbols: “Hourglass sands,” “withered leaves,” “setting sun,” “new moon”; “Clock hands like scythes” (time as death); “Seasons turning” as life stages; “Frost on the window” signaling age or end.
Additional Notes
temporal imagery|Descriptive language and figures of speech used to evoke the sensation of time, its passage, its effects, or a specific moment in time (e.g., dust of ages, fleeting hour).
Also Known As
Time imagery Chronological imagery Temporal picture Chronographia time-layered imagery
Skip to main content