Name: ___________________________________
Figurative Language Pre-Assessment
Answer the questions the best you can. I just want to know what you already
know. Don’t stress! 😊
Part One
Draw a line from the word to its definition.
0. Word
_______ is a “figure of speech” where opposite
words/terms are next to each other.
1. Figurative Language
_______ is a “figure of speech” that uses extreme
exaggeration (making something bigger, better, or
worse than it is).
2. Metaphor
_______ is repeating a word or phrase to emphasize
(stress/make) a point in writing.
3. Allusion
_______ is giving a non-living thing human
characteristics (features/traits).
4. Personification
_______ is an indirect (without literally saying it)
reference to a speech, text, event, or figure (person).
5. Hyperbole
_______ is a comparison using "like" or "as"
6. Oxymoron
_______ are words or phrases that are used to mean
something different than their literal meaning.
7. Repetition
_______ is a comparison without using "like" or "as".
8. Simile
Answer
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Part Two
Circle or underline the literary device asked for in each poem.
1. Circle or underline one simile AND one example of personification:
2.
A pineapple is the perfect gift
to bring to a blind date.
A pineapple is like a blind date:
spiky and armored at first,
with the hope of sweetness inside…”
“Ellis Island” by Joseph Bruchac, 1979
1
3. Circle or underline one allusion AND one example of repetition:
“…They worked
They worked
They worked
and they died
They died broke
They died owing
They died never knowing
what the front entrance
of the first national city bank looks like
Juan
Miguel
Milagros
Olga
Manuel
All died yesterday today
and will die again tomorrow
passing their bill collectors
on to the next of kin
All died
waiting for the garden of eden
to open up again
under a new management
All died
dreaming about america
waking them up in the middle of the night
screaming: Mira Mira"
“Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, 2015
2
4. Circle or underline one metaphor.
“Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So Dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.”
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost, 1923
5. Circle or underline one oxymoron.
“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?”
“Romeo and Juliet”, Act I, Scene I Shakespeare
3
6. Circle or underline a hyperbole.
“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.”
“Sonnet XVII” by Pablo Neruda, 1959
4