Tamerlane

The poem uses a range of approaches to imagery, including visual, tactile, and auditory imagery, to enhance the setting and immersion. In the second stanza, the speaker references “the lost flowers / And sunshine of my summer hours” (Lines 21-22), alluding to his lost youth. Here the speaker uses metaphorical visual imagery to conjure not only a place but a sensation of freedom and peace. He elaborates, “The undying voice of that dead time, / With its interminable chime, / Rings” (Lines 23-25), using auditory imagery to conjure his sense of loss.

In the following stanza, the speaker uses visual and tactile imagery as he recounts his rise to fame: “On mountain soil I first drew life: / The mists of the Taglay have shed / Nightly their dews” (Lines 35-37) and “tumult of the headlong air / Have nestled in my very hair” (Lines 39-40). The references to soil and mists create a strong visual image, while the image of dews and tumultuous wind in the speaker’s hair creates a tactile sensation that gives more nuance and crystallization to the setting.

The fourth stanza relies heavily on auditory imagery to create a turning point in the poem, moving away from the idyllicism of childhood toward the violence of war:

the deep trumpet-thunder’s roar

Came hurriedly upon me, telling

Of human battle, where my voice,

My own voice, silly child!—was swelling

(O! how my spirit would rejoice,

And leap within me at the cry)

The battle-cry of Victory! (Lines 48-54).

This creates an escalating effect from the “deep roar” to the “battle-cry,” mimicking the speaker’s own progression. Later, the imagery is used to communicate the speaker’s regrets and descent towards the end of his life. For example: “shadows on th’ unstable wind” (Line 80); “Dim, vanities of dreams by night” (Line 121); “In that time of dreariness, will seem […] A portrait taken after death” (Lines 204, 206). These moments of darkness and discontent, among others, heighten the speaker’s emotional state as he looks back over the choices he has made.