This dictionary is a set of paradigms of images of Russian poetry and prose of the 18th-20th centuries. It contains about 40,000 images of more than 600 authors. The dictionary provides an opportunity to see the world of poetic images as a whole. This world exists and develops according to its own laws - paradigms - completely regardless of the will of each individual author. But all together - both big and small poets - are involved in its development. Looking through each paradigm of the dictionary, you can see how it developed and what contribution this or that poet made to this process. With this dictionary, you can learn to understand the language of images. To understand poetry, not only the subtlety of feelings is important, but also knowledge of precedents - literary experience that shapes the culture of perception. The dictionary of images is the concentration of such experience, and the headings of the dictionary, in fact, are a semantic commentary in a concise form.