Clavis Libri

Literary device

Sensory imagery

Description that appeals to the senses (what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched) and makes the reader perceive the scene, not only understand it.

In Hamlet

I am thy father's spirit, / Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, / And for the day confined to fast in fires / Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature / Are burnt and purged away.

“Fire” and “night” make the audience see the fire and the dark in which the dead king suffers, and give physical body to the penance he serves for the crimes of his life.

Act I: The Ghost and the order of revenge, The Ghost, to Hamlet