Or
“Figurative Language
Tricks and Techniques”
 Using
metaphors, similes, imagery,
idioms, hyperbole and personification to
describe things
 Flowery
 “It’s

Language
raining cats and dogs!”
 “The
sky opened up and cried when it
found out you left me.”
 Precise, realistic
 “It
language
is raining out. “
 “I was sad when you left.”
 Two
lines that end in the same sound
(does not need to be spelled the same!)
 Hickory
Dickory DockThe mouse ran up the clock.
 Think: where
are your internal organs?
 This
rhyme is inside the middle of one
line of poetry
 Hickory
 Faded
Dickory Dock,
jaded jazz floats out of a cafe
 Plan
for rhyme- might be couplets (aabbcc)
 Or another plan like a limerick:
There was a young lady of Niger A
Who smiled as she rode on the back of a tiger A
They returned from a ride B
With the lady inside B
And a smile on the face of the tiger A
(anonymous)
 “No
rules just right”
 No rhymes at the end, sounds and looks
more like speech
You can’t order a poem
like you order a taco
Walk up to the counter and say “I’ll take
two”
and get them handed back to you
on a shiny plate.
(Naomi Shihab Nye)
“…The road was a ribbon
of moonlight…”
(Alfred Noyes)
Or

Vivid
picture in
one’s mind
from
powerful
words
“So much depends
upon
The red wheelbarrow
Glazed with rainwater
Beside
The white chickens”
(william carlos williams)
 Giving
non-human objects human-like
personality traits or actions
“…and then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils”
Also:
“Rikki –Tikki-Tavi” (Rudyard Kipling)
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
(William Wordsworth)
SimiLe
Metaphor
 Comparing
 Comparing
two
things using LIKE or
AS
two
things WITHOUT
using like or as”
 “moon
was a ghostly
galleon” (A. Noyes)
 “hair
like moldy hay”
(A. Noyes)
 “You
are my sunshine,
my only sunshine”
 When
the EXACT sound is repeated in
the beginning of two words
 (spelling does not matter)
“dazzling diamonds”
Prickly Pear
 When
a consonant is repeated in a line of
words
She sells seashells down by the seashore
The sailor sings of ropes and things
When
vowel sounds are repeated
(not always about the letter because in
English we pronounce vowels many
different ways!)
 “daylight
 Lucy
Liu
faded gracefully away”
 When
whole words or phrases are
repeated
 “…Tap, tap, tapping
on my chamber door”
(Edgar Allen Poe)
 One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish
(Dr. Seuss)
 Words
that mimic what they represent
 Tap, knock, boom, crash, whisper, zip, buzz,
hum…
 (Story
time!)
(The only word in the English language without a
vowel…!)
 The
measured beat of poetry
Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to
me
 or
 There once was a student named Andy (3)
Who said “Oh no, I would never eat candy!” (3)
He refused to eat sweets (2)
On his phone he would tweet (2)
I feel fine and my teeth are just dandy! (3)

 Now
you will be able to construct poems
of great magnificence and charm.
 Take
care of your toolbox!