Figurative Language
 Writing that creates an
image, meaning is not to be
taken for real, may contain
personification, metaphor,
etc.
Literal Language
 Words that mean exactly
what they say
Creates
pictures for
the senses –
imaginative
thought or
expression,
creates a
mental
image, done
with
figurative
language
Poets are concerned with the
concrete, specific, and particular.
Poets
SHOW;
they do not
TELL
Poets choose images
that embody their
ideas.
Couplet
Alliteration
Rhyme
Two, successive
rhyming lines
Repetition of initial
letter or sound in two
or more nearby words
Ending sounds that
agree = echoing of
final sounds
Rabbits running over roses
Humpty Dumpty sat on a
wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a
great fall.
All the King's horses, And
all the King's men
Couldn't put Humpty
together again
If turkeys gobble,
Do pilgrims squabble?
HYPERBOLE:
METAPHOR:
comparison
WITHOUT using like
or as
Obvious
exaggeration
SIMILE:
Comparison USING
like or as
ALLUSION:
PERSONIFICATION:
Reference to
another work or
historical event
Gives human
qualities to nonhuman objects
Onomatopoeia
Imitation of a natural sound spelled out in word format
BUZZ
ZIP
HISS
BOOM
OXYMORON
Two or more words that appear to be contradictory
The girl is pretty ugly.
assonance
 Resemblance of internal letter or sound in two or more
nearby words:
The June moon loomed over us.
…does not tell us that the Chinese girl named Rafu is
beautiful; he shows us the effect her beauty has on the men
that see her
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And when men going by look on
Rafu
They set down their burdens,
They stand and twirl their
moustaches
…does not tell us that a
certain individual is a hypocrite. He shows us:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The smiler with the knife under the cloak.
Our job as readers (apart from simply enjoying the writing, which is job #1) is to
extract the idea from the imagery.
“To you our swords have leaden points.”
• IDEAS:
“I am a feather for each wind that blows.”
• IDEAS:
“Wherever we are, there’s daggers in men’s smiles.”
• IDEAS:
“O, full of scorpions is my mind.”
• IDEAS:
“Men shut their doors against a setting sun.”
• IDEAS:
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is To have a thankless child.”
• IDEAS:
Personification
The Eagle
He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Because I Could Not
Stop for Death – Emily
Dickinson
a)What is personified?
Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
b)Who are the characters (there are four),
and what do each represent?
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labour, and my leisure too,
For his civility.
We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.
We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.
Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.
c)Find an example of alliteration in the
poem:
d)What do picture when reading this
poem?
Where the Sidewalk Ends
– Shel Silverstein
There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Find an example of each of the following in
this poem:
1)Hyperbole
2)Personification
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.
3)Metaphor
4)Simile
5)Symbolism
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you
may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no
other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was
more than loveI and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of
heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in
heaven,
Went envying her and meYes!- that was the reason (as all men
know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud
by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than
the love
Of those who were older than weOf many far wiser than weAnd neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without
bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the
bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by
the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and
my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Discuss the imagery you find in this
poem: (focus on darkness and light too!)

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
a)According to the narrator, what is the biggest
enemy of success?
b)Discuss symbolism used in the poem:
c)What is an example of imagery in this poem?
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
d)What is personified?
Dreams Deferred
Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream
deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore-And then run?
Does it stink like rotten
meat?
Or crust and sugar
over-like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode
Tunnel of Love
Bruce Springsteen
Fat man sitting on a little stool
Takes the money from my hand while his eyes take a walk all over you
Hands me the ticket smiles and whispers good luck
Cuddle up angel cuddle up my little dove
Well ride down baby into this tunnel of love
I can feel the soft silk of your blouse
And them soft thrills in our little fun house
Then the lights go out and it's just the three of us
You me and all that stuff were so scared of
Gotta ride down baby into this tunnel of love
There's a crazy mirror showing us both in 5-d
I’m laughing at you you're laughing at me
There's a room of shadows that gets so dark brother
Its easy for two people to lose each other in this tunnel of love
It ought to be easy ought to be simple enough
Man meets woman and they fall in love
But the house is haunted and the ride gets rough
And you’ve got to learn to live with what you can't rise above if you want to ride on down in through
this tunnel of love
Find as many examples of figurative language as you can in these lyrics. Write
the explanation next to each line of the song.
I
The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o'clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimneypots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
II
The morning comes to consciousness
Of faint stale smells of beer
From the sawdust-trampled street
With all its muddy feet that press
To early coffee-stands.
With the other masquerades
That times resumes,
One thinks of all the hands
That are raising dingy shades
In a thousand furnished rooms.
Excerpt from “Preludes”
by T.S. Eliot
“Preludes” is a poem in which Eliot is telling us
about life in a modern city. Choose four images
(phrases OR lines) from each stanza, (highlight
them or underline) then write a short paragraph
explaining what Eliot is suggesting about modern
city life.
Concrete
poetry forms a shape, the appearance on the page is
just as important as the text.
 Acrostic:
poem made using the initial letters of a word or phrase
Candy
Charleston Chew
Almond Joy
Nestle's Crunch
Dots
Yummy
Limerick: a five line stanza,
humorous poem
A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, "Let us flee."
"Let us fly," said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue.
Assignment
1)With a partner, find three poems online written by
American authors. The poems can be from various
times in history, and may be written in any style. Copy
and paste the poems into an MSWord document. (Try
to get all three poems on one or two pieces of paper).
Print the document out. With your partner, find as
many examples of figurative language as you can in
each poem. Then, write a short paragraph for each
that details the author’s message or theme for each
poem.
Assignment
2) This assignment will be completed ON YOUR OWN.
Find lyrics to one of your favorite songs (any genre is
fine). Copy and paste the lyrics to an MS Word
Document. Censor any inappropriate language with
asterisks or dashes. Find as many examples of
figurative language as you can, and write it down right
next to the line it corresponds to on your lyric sheet.
Make sure you write down what message/theme the
author is trying to tell us.
Assignment
3) Write a poem in a style you have learned about, or in a
style that you create on your own. It can be based on
any theme, or tell any “story” that you like.
Make sure you use at least three types of figurative
language in your poem.
Your final poem must by typed and given a title.