Which line contains olfactory imagery about a scent of a rose?

• A. What is poetry? Who knows? Not a rose, but a scent of a rose.
• B. The prince of darkness played his trombone like a madman: its brazen roaring were like the laughter of the damned.
• C. Rolling rumble and crash.
• D. Leaves were green and stirring, berries, luster -glossed.

Answer: (A)

Olfactory imagery is imagery that appeals to the sense of smell. In poetry, describing a scent invites readers to imagine fragrances, not colors, sounds, or textures.

In the line that says “What is poetry? Who knows? Not a rose, but a scent of a rose,” the focus is on a fragrance—the phrase “a scent of a rose” directly evokes smell. That makes it a clear example of olfactory imagery. The other lines lean on other senses: the second line centers on sound with a trombone and the laughter it conjures; the third line conveys noise and movement through “rolling rumble and crash”; the fourth line emphasizes visual details like color and appearance. So the line mentioning a scent of a rose best demonstrates smell imagery.