Poetic language creating intensely clear, detailed, and concrete sensory impressions through precise imagery, specific details, and graphic particulars. Vivid description, known in classical rhetoric as enargeia, makes subjects come alive through exact observation and sensory specificity. Keats' "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," Owen's graphic war imagery, and Hopkins' detailed natural descriptions exemplify this technique. Associated with Imagist principles of direct treatment and concrete language, vivid description contrasts with abstract generalization, creating immediate sensory impact through precision and particularity that engages readers' imaginations.

Central technique in descriptive poetry from Homer through contemporary verse. Creates strong sensory impression through specific detail. Associated with enargeia in classical rhetoric. Related to showing versus telling. Imagist movement emphasized vivid, concrete imagery over abstract statement.