Figurative Language
Figurative Language:
• Is language or speech that contains
images and is NOT intended to be
interpreted in a literal sense
• Describes something through unusual
comparison for effect, interest, and to
make things more clear
• The most common figures of speech
are simile, metaphor and alliteration
Figures of Speech:
Imagery: language that appeals to the
senses. Descriptions of people, or
objects stated in terms of our senses.
Simile: a direct comparison between two
unlike things, using the words like or as.
Example: The muscles on his brawny
arms are strong as iron bands.
Figures of Speech:
Metaphor: an implied comparison between two
relatively unlike things using a form of the verb
“to be”. The comparison does NOT use like or as.
Example: The road was a ribbon of moonlight.
Alliteration: repeated consonant sounds that occur
at the beginning of words. It is used to create
melody, establish mood, call attention to
important words, and point out similarities and
contrasts.
Example: wide-eyed and wondering while we
wait for others to wake
Figures of Speech:
Personification: gives the qualities of a person
to an animal, an object, or an idea. Used to
communicate a certain feeling or attitude, or
to control the way a reader perceives it.
Example: sometime too hot the eye of heaven
shines.
Onomatopoeia: the use of words to mimic
sounds
Example: Snap! Crackle! Pop!
Figures of Speech:
Hyperbole: An exaggerated statement used to
enhance effect
Example: She’s said so on several million
occasions
Idioms: language specific expressions
Example:
A little bird to me
Achilles' Heel
Jack of all trades
Tables are turned
Take your breath away
Figures of Speech:
Paradox: a statement or situation containing
apparently contradictory or incompatible
elements, but may actually be true.
Example: green is gold
Men work together whether they work together or apart
Irony: an expression or situation used in
opposition to what one would expect
Example: the fire station burned down
Rhyme:
•
•
1.
Refers to the repetition of similar sounds occurring at
regular intervals
Example: Hey, diddle, diddle; The cat and the fiddle….
Five kinds of rhyme:
End Rhyme: the duplication of sounds that takes
place at the end of lines
Example: Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn
2. Rhyme: Rhyme that occurs within a single line of
poetry
Example: Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep
Rhyme cont.
3. Forced Rhyme: A rhyme that is created by
mispronouncing words, or inventing words to make
the rhyme work.
Example: Farewell, Farewell, you old rhinoceros
I’ll stare at something less prepocerous
4. Imperfect Rhyme: a rhyme between a stressed and
unstressed syllable
Example: wing and caring
5. Perfect Rhyme: final accented vowels of rhyming
words are identical
Example: sight and flight, sadness and madness
Rhyme Scheme:
• The pattern of rhymed words
• Stanzas are often linked by their rhyme
scheme
• Written out in letter form
Example: 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!
Rhythm: a pattern in the beat of stresses
in the stream of sound
Tone: the expression of a literary
speaker’s attitude
Example: the tone can be happy, sad,
reflective, etc.
Couplet: a pair of rhymed lines