New Junior English Revised –
Further activities on Figures of Speech
Metaphor
A metaphor is an implied comparison between two unlike things (for example, the
sea, and an orchestra) that stresses one respect in which they are similar (both make
rhythmic sounds). An extended metaphor develops that comparison by a further
description of qualities and behaviours of the thing to which the comparison is being
made (the orchestra, in this case) that throw further light on the thing that is the
subject of the comparison (the sea). The extended metaphor might describe angry
waves striking the rocks as percussion, the echo of large waves in caves as the
boom of bass instruments, the slapping and lapping of waves as the sound of a
piano, and so on.
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune – without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily Dickinson
Metaphor 1
(a) Listen several times to the reading of ‘Hope’. Do you think the metaphor for hope
that the poet uses is a good one? Explain why or why not. Talk about how the poet
extends the metaphor. Why do you think the bird is little, rather than big? Why do you
think that it sings the tune ‘without the words’? How does the little bird keep ‘so many
warm’? Why does the poet mention that the little bird never asked for a crumb? In
each case, read the lines or phrases that support your answers.
(b) Picture the little bird in the situations that the poem describes, and read the poem,
individually or in groups, so it recreates the little bird’s journey. Add sound effects if
you want. (You must make these yourselves.) If your class has a webpage, record
the best readings and share them online.
Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,
Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,
Whirling fantastic in the misty air,
Contending fierce for space supremacy.
Excerpt from ‘The Snow Fairy’ by Claude McKay
Metaphor 2
(a) Find out about this Caribbean poet and author using the Internet or reference
materials in the library. One poem he wrote is especially famous internationally. Find
out which poem it is and why it is so famous.
Listen a few times to the excerpt from ‘The Snow Fairy’.
(b) What are the snow fairies, in reality? What do you think is the basis for the poet’s
implied comparison? What does the fourth line mean? What picture does it bring to
mind?
(c) Working alone, or in pairs, write a poem that takes the metaphor of snow fairies
and extends it to say what happens to the snow fairies when they fall from the ‘misty
air’.
Personification
Personification is a figure of speech in which an object or idea is given human qualities or
abilities. When we say, for example, that trees whisper, or clouds cry or the sun laughs, we
are using examples of 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
Personification 1
(a) Listen two or three times to the reading of ‘The Eagle’. Point out the words that
the poet uses to personify the eagle. What kind of picture of the eagle do they help to
paint?
(b) Find the simile in the second verse. How does this comparison add to your
impression of the eagle?
(c) Is the eagle the only thing personified in the poem?
(d) Find examples of alliteration. Talk about the impression that these sounds help to
create.
Personification 2
Talk about the differences between the bird in ‘Hope’ and the bird in ‘The Eagle’.
Write a poem about a bird in which you use personification to convey its special
qualities.
Up with the sun, the breeze arose,
Across the talking corn she goes,
And smooth she rustles far and wide
Through all the voiceful countryside.
Through all the land her tale she tells;
She spins, she tosses, she compels
The kites, the clouds, the windmill sails
And all the trees in all the dales.
Excerpt from ‘An English Breeze’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Personification 3
(a) Read the excerpt from ‘An English Breeze’ silently and then listen to the audio
recording. Read aloud all the lines from the excerpt that talk about the breeze as a
person. What human activities does she perform? What impression of the breeze do
they convey?
(b) Is the breeze the only thing personified in the poem? Can you tell whether she is
the most important thing personified? Point to the ways in which the poet extends the
central metaphor in the poem. Read lines from the poem aloud as often as you need
to while discussing it.
(c) The breeze in this poem does something that is similar (not identical, just similar)
to something the little bird in ‘Hope’ does, but which the eagle does not do. Read the
three poems again, identify this action and discuss what it tells you about the little
bird, the breeze, and the eagle.
(d) The breeze moves in the course of the poem, as do the eagle and the little bird.
How are these movements alike or different? Listen to the poems again, and say
whether the readings communicate this similarity and difference in movement. Try to
do readings that convey the movement of the breeze.
(e) Is there any characteristic that the breeze shares with the eagle, but not with the
little bird in ‘Hope’? Read the lines that describe this characteristic.
(f) Write a poem about a creature or a natural element in which you use
personification to convey its special qualities.