The broadest possible thing that we can say about poetry is that it consists of a language of images. An image is any word that names a concrete thing or action. Running and sleeping are images that name a physical action. A tree planted by streams of water is an image in the form of a physical thing. Loosely speaking, anything we can visualize is an image. We can also profitably think of a poetic image as presenting us with a picture. But an image can be a sound or