There are numerous answers to your question about the purpose of imagery in poetry. I'll mention one that is particularly relevant to poetry, as opposed to prose.
There probably is no accurate definition (in our current literary climate) of poetry, that covers everything that today is considered poetry. For instance, what we accept today as prose poetry doesn't fit any standard definitions from the past of what poetry is. If there is a single characteristic that at least fits most of what is considered poetry, it may be compressed language.
Poetry has a need to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. That is true with most successful writing, of course, but the need is more pronounced in poetry.
Imagery is an important form of compressed language, and is therefore vital in poetry. Other forms of compressed language, such as simile and metaphor, often create imagery. They help a writer to accomplish as much as possible in as few lines as possible.
Consider Randall Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner":
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
Looking at only the final line, the image of fellow soldiers washing the leftover bits of a man ripped to shreds by shrapnel creates multiple meanings, reactions, and emotions:
- Horror
- Shock
- Disgust
- Disbelief or at least discomfort at the nonchalance that seems to be involved
- anti-war sentiment
- irony
- pity
Notice that none of the words I use to describe the meanings, etc. of the image are used by the writer: they are all revealed by the image. That's what imagery does for poetry.
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