Figurative language
What is figurative language?
By Mrs. Ferrell
Mitchell Elementary
Figurative language
• Figurative language uses "figures of
speech" - a way of saying
something other than the literal
meaning of the words.
• Literal meaning is what something
actually says that it is.
• Figurative meaning is what
something represents.
Idioms: In the sentence,
It’s raining cats and dogs,
• The literal meaning is:
• Cats and dogs are falling from the
sky.
• The figurative meaning is:
• It is raining a lot.
Similes: In the sentence:
Life is like a box of chocolates;
you never know what you’ll get next.
• The literal meaning is:
• Life is really a box of chocolate
candy.
• The figurative meaning is:
• Life is uncertain because you do not
know what will happen next.
Metaphors: In the sentence:
That car is a bullet.
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The literal meaning is:
The automobile is some type of slug.
The figurative meaning is:
The automobile is
incredibly fast.
There are several types
of figurative language.
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Metaphors
Similes
Hyperboles
Personification
Metaphors
• A metaphor is a comparison.
• Comparisons associate two things that are
usually unalike. They evaluate how they
are alike.
• Metaphors compare two things that are
usually not compared.
Metaphors compare two things.
• From Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, she writes,
“When you go owling you don’t
need words or warm or anything
but hope. That’s what Pa says.
The kind of hope that flies on
silent wings under a shining Owl Moon.”
• What two things are being compared in the
metaphor?
• They are hope and flying with silent wins under
an Owl Moon. How are they alike?
• Hope lifts your spirits, and flying lifts things
in the air.
What two things are being compared?
• From White Snow Bright Snow by Alvin
Tresselt, he writes,
“Even the church steeple wore
a pointed cap on its top.”
• They are the church steeple
and white pointed cap.
How are they alike?
• They are both triangles
pointing up.
What are the metaphors,
and what do they mean?
• My love is a red, red rose.
• Happiness is a cheese pizza.
• - All the world's a stage,
– And all the men and women
merely players
– They have their exits and their entrances; —
(William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 2/7)
Similes
• A simile is a metaphor using the
words like , as, than, seems, or as if.
• Most similes use like or as.
• They compare two things that are
essentially unalike.
• “She’s as busy as a bee,”
is a familiar simile. What
does it mean?
More Similes
• Faith Ringgold writes in Tar Beach,
“Daddy said that the George Washington
Bridge is the longest and most beautiful
bridge in the world . . . I can wear it like
a giant diamond necklace, or just fly
above it and marvel at its sparkling
beauty.
• What two things are being compared in
the simile? How are they alike?
“ I could wear (the bridge)
like a diamond necklace.”
Poor as a church mouse.
strong as an ox,
cute as a button,
smart as a fox.
thin as a toothpick,
white as a ghost,
fit as a fiddle,
dumb as a post.
bald as an eagle,
neat as a pin,
proud as a peacock,
ugly as sin.
When people are talking
you know what they’ll say
as soon as they start
To use a cliché.
Hyperboles
• Hyperboles are bold, deliberate
overstatements not intended to be
taken literally. They are used as a
means of emphasizing the truth of
a statement.
From Robert Frost’s poem
“After Apple Picking”
• “Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let
fall.
For all . . .”
• What is over-exaggerated?
From Robert Frost’s poem
“Stopping By the Woods on
a Snowy Evening”
• Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
• Can the woods really
fill up with snow?
• What does he mean?
Personification
• Personification is a comparison
in which distinct human
qualities like honesty, emotion,
beauty, agility, etc., are
attributed to animals, plants,
or things.
The Mirror by Slyvia Path
• I am silver and exact.
I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or
dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful—
• How is the mirror personified?
Remember The Little
Engine That Could?
• How was the train given human
qualities?
• It showed persistence. It never gave
up when trying
to get up the hill.
Remember
The Gingerbread Boy?
• He used problem solving skills by
running away from the people
who wanted to eat him.
Which statements
show personification?
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Walking desks took over the school.
We listen to the wind.
The dog stares carefully at the visitor.
My hamster loves food.
The flowers dance in the wind.
Fall leaves skipped down the sidewalk.
My dog read my mind.
His brother smiles at the sunshine.
The wind whispers its secrets through the trees.
Dreams
by Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
What is personified? Explain.
A symbol is one thing
that stands for another.
• The U.S. flag is a
symbol of our country.
We know what it
stands for when
we see it.
More common symbols:
What do they mean?
Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost
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.
Works Cited
Frost, Robert. 2006. Accessed 3 Noember 2006.
<http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/frost.html>.
Lansky, Bruce. 2000. If Pigs Could Fly . . . And Other Deep Thoughts. Minnetonka,
Minnesota: Meadowbrook Press.
Ringgold, Faith. 1991. Tar Beach. New York: Crown Publisher, Inc.
Shakespeare, William. 1939. As You Like It. Boston: Ginn and Co.
Teesselt, Alvin. 1988. White Snow, Bright Snow. New York: Mulberry Books.
Yolen, Jane. 1987. Owl Moon. New York: Philomel Books.