Using Literary Devices
to
Analyze Literature
1
IMAGERY
“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with azure world, he stands.”
- Tennyson
Imagery may be defined as the representation through language
of sense experience. The word imagery most often suggests a
mental picture – visual imagery. Of course, an image may also
represent a sound, a smell, a taste, a tactile experience or an
internal sensation. Since imagery is a particularly effective way
of evoking vivid experiences, conveying emotion, suggesting ideas,
and causing mental reproduction of sensations, it is an invaluable
resource for poets.
2
The Tropics in New York
Claude McKay
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawn, and mystical skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
1
5
10
Knoxville, Tennessee
Nikki Giovanni
I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy's garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbeque
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream
at the church picnic
and listen to
gospel music
outside
at the church
homecoming
and go to the mountains with
your grandmother
and go barefooted
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep
3
1
5
10
15
20
My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum
Leonard Adame
in her house
she would rock quietly and hum
until her swelled hands
calmed
1
in summer
she wore thick stockings
sweater
and gray braids
5
(when el cheque came
we went to Payless
and I laughed greedily when given a quarter)
mornings,
sunlight barely lit
the kitchen
and where
there were shadows
it was not cold
10
15
she quietly rolled
flour tortillas -the papas
cracking in hot lard
would wake me
20
she had lost her teeth
and when we ate
she had bread
soaked in café
25
always her eyes
were clear
and she could see
as I cannot yet see -through her eyes
she gave me herself
30
she would sit
and talk
of her girlhood --
35
of things strange to me:
Mexico
4
epidemics
relatives shot
her father’s hopes
of this country -how they sank
with cement dust
to his insides
40
now
when I go
to the old house
the worn spots by the stove
echo of her shuffling
and
Mexico
still hangs in her
fading
calendar pictures
45
50
ANALYZE IT: Remember that an image is a word picture. A writer uses images to make the
reader see, smell, hear, taste, or feel. Of course you can have images in your mind, too, without
words. These are mental pictures, and this is usually what memories are. The writers of these three
poems started with images in their minds and put them into words so that they could become images
in the reader’s mind.
Draw a chart like the one below for each of the three poems we just read. Complete each chart by
listing as many examples of imagery from the poem under the appropriate sense to which it appeals.
SIGHT
SOUND
TOUCH
TASTE
SMELL
Write about it: Write a paragraph explaining why imagery is important to these
three poems. In other words, how does imagery add to your understanding and
appreciation of the poem? Support your ideas and/or opinions by citing specific
examples from the poems. Be prepared to share your explanation with the class.
5
DISCUSSION: Read the following description of a town named Maycomb.
In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the
courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on
a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering
shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning.
From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
How does the author use imagery to tell the reader about the setting of the novel and
about the size, location, age, appearance, and the economic status of the town of
Maycomb? What image of the town does the author create? Which words help create
this image?
ON YOUR OWN: Find a poem or paragraph that is rich in imagery. Copy the poem or
paragraph and write an essay in which you not only discuss the various types of imagery
the writer uses in the piece. Be sure to be specific. Cite actual words and phrases from
the poem or paragraph as examples to support your opinions and conclusions.
6
SIMILE
“When I have stopped reading,
ideas from the words
stay stuck in my mind, like the sweet smell of
butter perfuming my
fingers long after the popcorn is finished.”
- Maya Angelou
A simile is a comparison between two
things that are essentially unlike. A
distinctive characteristic of simile is the
use of the words like, as, similar to, or
resembles to make the comparison.
Thus, the poet uses simile to help readers
understand something new by comparing
it with something familiar
7
SIMILE
N.Scott Momaday
What did we say to each other
That now we are as the deer
Who walk in single file
With heads high
With ears forward
With hooves always placed on firm ground
In whose limbs there is latent flight.
1
5
DREAM DEFERRED
Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore –
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over –
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
An emerald is as green as grass
Christina
rossetti
An emerald is as green as grass
As ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven,
A flint lies in the mud.
1
A diamond is a brilliant stone,
To catch the world’s desire;
An opal hold a fiery spark,
But a flint holds fire.
5
8
1
5
10
ANALYZE IT:
Remember that a simile is a comparison made between two dissimilar
things that uses the words like or as. The tings compared are usually completely
different except for a particular shared quality. On your own paper, make a chart ike the
one below. Write the similes found in these three poems. Write what two things each
simile compares, and what makes these similes particularly appropriate for the poem.
(Thing about what is similar about the two things being compared.)
Title of Poem _________________________
Simile
What’s being compared
Explain what makes the simile
appropriate for the poem.
: On your own paper, complete the following sentences with
Write About It
interesting similes:
1. The August sun was as hot as ___________________________________.
2. After a long day of hiking, we were as tired as ________________________.
3. The baby bird was as tiny as ___________________________________.
4. The sleeping children were as quiet as _____________________________.
5. The new-fallen snow was as white as ______________________________.
6. An angry teacher is like _______________________________________.
7. Trying to follow my little sister’s directions is like _____________________.
8. The cold pizza tastes like ______________________________________.
9. The new first grader was as nervous as ____________________________.
10. When he heard a noise inside the coffin, the undertaker ran like ___________.
: Find five examples of simile in magazine ads, stories, poems, etc.
ON YOUR OWN
and copy them onto your own paper. Explain what the two things being compared have
in common and why the simile is so appropriate. In other words, how does the simile
add to what the writer is trying to say? Be prepared to share your examples with the
class!
9
METAPHOR
“”Life is but a walking shadow, a
poor player that struts and frets
his hour upon the stage and then is
heard no more.”
- William Shakespeare
Like a simile, metaphor is
also a comparison.
However, in metaphor, the
comparison is implied. In
other words, when
Shakespeare writes in
“Spring” that “merry larks
are ploughman’s clocks” he
is using a metaphor; for he
identifies larks with clocks.
10
DREAMS
Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is but a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
1
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
5
MOON TIGER
Denise Levertov
The moon tiger.
In the room, here.
It came in, it is
prowling sleekly
under and over
the twin beds.
See its small head,
silver smooth,
hear the pad of its
large feet. Look,
its white stripes
in the light that slid
through the jalousies.
It is sniffing our
clothes, its cold nose
nudges our bodies..
The beds are narrow,
but I’m coming in with you.
1
5
10
15
11
ANALYZE IT:
Answer the following questions on your own paper:
1.
2.
3.
4.
What are the metaphors found in “Dreams”?
What two things are being compared in each of the metaphors in “Dreams”?
Why is the comparison appropriate for the poem’s message?
What metaphor is expressed in the title “Moon Tiger”? (What two things are
being compared?)
5. How is the metaphor expressed in the title developed in the poem, “Moon Tiger”?
6. What does the comparison in “Moon Tiger” tell you about the speaker’s feelings
twoard the moon?
7. After reading these two poems, in what ways do you believe metaphors are
important to writers?
WRITE ABOUT IT:
Read the following poem. Then write a composition explaining
how the poet uses metaphor. (You might want to include and explain how the metaphor
in each stanza helps create the mood of that stanza.) Be sure to use specific examples
from the poem to support your opinion and ideas.
AN INDIAN SUMMER DAY ON THE PRAIRIE
Vachel Lindsay
FIRST VOICE: In the Beginning
The sun is a huntress young,
The sun is a red, red joy,
The sun is an Indian girl,
Of the tribe of the Illinois.
5
SECOND VOICE: Mid-Morning
The sun is a smolder fire,
That creeps through the high gray plain,
And leaves not a brush of cloud
To blossom with flowers of rain.
10
THIRD VOICE: Noon
The sun is a wounded deer,
That treads pale grass in the skies,
Shaking his golden horns,
Flashing his baleful eyes.
11
FOURTH VOICE: Sunset
The sun is an eagle old,
There in the windless west,
Atop of the spirit-cliffs
He builds him a crimson nest.
20
12
DISCUSSION:
Sometimes a metaphor is suggested or implied. It does not state
that one thing is another, different thing. What comparisons are implied by the
following metaphors? What words suggest these metaphors?
1. The wind drove the galloping storm clouds across the sky.
2. Carefully, cleverly, the spy wove his web of deceit and waited to entrap his
victim.
3. The windows of the old house stared out into the night, and the open door
seemed to grin.
4. The quilted snow fell gently over the earth – tucking it in for a long winter’s
nap.
5. His youth ticked away quickly.
An extended metaphor is a series of comparisons between two unlike things that have
elements in common. Explain how the following poem is an extended metaphor:
YOUR WORLD
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Your world is as big as you make it.
I know, for I used to abide
In the narrowest nest in a corner to my side.
But I sighted the distant horizon
Where the sky line encircled the sea
And I throbbed with a burning desire
To travel this immensity.
I battered the cordons all around me
And cradled my wings on the breeze
Then soared to the uttermost reaches
With rapture, with power, with ease!
13
PERSONIFICATION
“You can hear happiness staggering on down
the street,
footsteps dressed in red
And the wind whispers……Mary”
-Jimi Hendrix
Personification consists of giving
human qualities to an animal, an
object, or an idea. Thus when
Robert Frost calls the sun a wizard
and the moon a witch, he is
personifying objects.
14
CHICAGO
HOG Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas
lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to
kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the
mark of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the
sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and
cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against
the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage
pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog
Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
DISCUSSION: Give specific examples of Sandburg’s use of personification
–for example, what is being personified, what human characteristics is this
non-human object or thing?
15
SEA LULLABY
Elinor Wylie
The old moon is tarnished
1
With smoke of the flood,
The dead leaves are varnished
With color like blood.
A treacherous smiler
5
With teeth white as milk,
A savage beguiler
In sheathings of silk
The sea creeps to pillage,
She leaps on her prey;
10
A child of the village
Was murdered today.
She came up to meet him
In a smooth golden cloak,
She choked him and beat him
15
to death, for a joke.
Her bright locks were tangled,
She shouted for joy
With one hand she strangled
20
A strong little boy.
Now in silence she lingers
Beside him all night
To wash her long fingers
In silvery light.
ANALYZE IT: Answer the following questions about Wylie’s poem:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Does the speaker picture the sea as a man or a woman? Explain and support your
answer.
Give 5 examples of how the sea is personified in the poem.
What aspects of the sea correspond to each of the following human attributes?
teeth (line 6) hand(line 16)
locks(line 17) fingers(23)
Locate examples of other types of figurative language that are used in the poem.
What image does the speaker paint of the sea? Explain, using specific examples.
16
6.
7.
What mood or feeling is created by the images in the first stanza?
What makes this mood appropriate for this poem?
WRITE ABOUT IT: Read the following passage and write a paragraph that
examines the author’s use of figurative language. Cite specific examples of imagery,
simile, etc. and expalin how they add to the reader’s understanding and appreiciation of
the story.
HAIRS
Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa’s hair is like a broom, all up
in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos’ hair is
thick and straight. He doesn’t need to comb it. Nenny’s hair is slippery – slides out of
your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.
But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles
all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into
when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread
before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still
warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain falling outside and Papa snoring.
The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.
From The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
17
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street
- Robert Frost
ALLITERATION
Alliteration is the repetition of initial
consonant sounds. It provides emphases in
the following lines by W.H. Auden:
“The day of his death was a dark, cold day.”
18
THE TIME WE CLIMBED SNAKE MOUNTAIN
Leslie Silko
Seeing good places
for my hands
I grab the warm parts of the cliff
and I feel the mountain as I climb.
5
somewhere around here
yellow spotted snake is sleeping
on his rock
in the sun.
so please,
10
I tell them,
watch out,
don’t step on yellow spotted snake,
he lives here.
the mountain is his.
SILVER
Walter De La Mare
Slowly, silently, now the moon
Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
5
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
10
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.
19
DISCUSSION:
Answer the following questions about the poems:
1. What sound is repeated most often in each poem?
2. Why is this sound an appropriate one for these particular poems?
3. How does the author’s use of alliteration in each of these poems
enhance the reader’s appreciation and understanding of the poem?
LET’S PRACTICE: Write a simple sentence that has a subject, verb, and
direct object that all begin with the same letter of the alphabet. In addition,
each sentence must have at least one adjective and one adverb that begins
with the letter being repeated in the sentence. Write one sentence for every
letter of the alphabet. Here’s an example:
An athletic acrobat appropriately ate an appetizing apple.
You may sometimes have to use a, the, or and. And you may have trouble
with the letter X! Do your best! Silly and serious sentences will suffice.
Witty words will be wonderful, too!
20
HYPERBOLE
Hyperbole, also known as an overstatement,
is simple exaggeration –exaggeration in the
service of TRUTH, not with the intention of
lying. For example, if a person says, “You
could knock me down with a feather,” or “I’ll
die if I don’t pass this class,” the person
doesn’t expect to be believed; instead, he just
wants to ADD EMPHASIS.
“Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.”
-
Ernest Lawrence Thayer
21
Casey at the Bat
A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888
The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day;
The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play.
And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same,
A sickly silence fell upon the patrons of the game.
A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to that hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought if only Casey could but get a whack at that–
We'd put up even money now with Casey at the bat.
But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake,
And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.
But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all,
And Blake, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball;
And when the dust had lifted, and the men saw what had occurred,
There was Johnnie safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third.
Then from 5,000 throats and more there rose a lusty yell;
It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell;
It knocked upon the mountain and recoiled upon the flat,
For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat.
5
10
15
20
There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place;
There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile on Casey's face.
And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat.
Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt;
Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt.
Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip,
Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip.
And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air,
And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there.
Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped–
"That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one," the umpire said.
From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar,
Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore.
"Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand;
And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand.
22
25
30
35
With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone;
He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on;
He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the spheroid flew;
But Casey still ignored it, and the umpire said, "Strike two."
40
"Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;
But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed.
They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain,
And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again.
The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate;
He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate.
And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go,
And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow.
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville –mighty Casey has struck out.
DISCUSSION:
45
50
Find examples of hyperbole in Thayer’s poem and explain what the exaggerations
emphasize. Why are such exaggerations so appropriate for this particular poem?
23
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
-
Robert Frost
SYMBOL
A symbol is an object that stands for something larger than
itself, usually an abstract concept. In other words, it means
both what is it and something more – as a dove is both a bird
and a symbol of peace.
24
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Uphill
Christina Rossetti
5
10
15
Does the road wind up-hill all the way?
Yes, to the very end.
Will the day's journey take the whole long day?
From morn to night, my friend.
But is there for the night a resting-place?
A roof for when the slow dark hours begin.
May not the darkness hide it from my face?
You cannot miss that inn.
Shall I meet other wayfarers at night?
Those who have gone before.
Then must I knock, or call when just in sight?
They will not keep you standing at that door.
Shall I find comfort, travel-sore and weak?
Of labor you shall find the sum.
Will there be beds for me and all who seek?
Yea, beds for all who come.
20
Discussion: Answer the following questions about the poems.
1. Both Frost and Rossetti write about roads. What do the roads in each poem
represent?
2. What clues in the poem point to these symbolic meanings?
3. What might the night and the inn symbolize in Rossetti’s poem? Explain?
25
5
10
15
IRONY
Verbal Irony is saying the opposite of what one means. Irony allows
the writer to present a surface meaning (what is said) and an intended
meaning (what is really meant. Dramatic Irony is when the reader
or audience knows something that a character in a story/play does not
know. Irony of Situation occurs when a character’s actions bring
about unexpected results. This often results in the story having a
surprise ending – an unexpected twist of events.
26
Ballad of Birmingham
Dudley Randall
Note: This poem was written in response to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in
Birmingham, Alabama in 1963, a bombing that killed four African-American children.
"Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?"
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren't good for a little child."
"But, mother, I won't be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free."
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children's choir."
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.
The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?"
ANALYZE IT:
Answer the following questions about the poem:
1. What images does Randall use to emphasize the innocence of the child?
2. How is the poem ironic? What type of irony is evident?
3. At the end of the poem, the mother, clawing through the rubble, finds her child’s shoe.
Why do you think Randall chose to show the mother finding a shoe rather than the body
of her child?
27
“Looking back and longing
for the freedom of my
chains,”
T. Jans
PARADOX
A paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless
somehow true. It may be either a situation or a statement.
The value of paradox is its shock value. Because its seeming
impossibility startles the reader into attention by the fact of its
apparent absurdity, it underscores the truth of what is being
said.
28
MY HEART LEAPS UP
William Wordsworth
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.
ANALYZE IT:
MY LIFE CLOSED TWICE
Emily Dickinson
My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me.
So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
Answer the following questions about these two poems:
1. Which lines are examples of a paradox?
2. In what sense are these lines FALSE?
3. In what sense are these lines TRUE?
4. What effect does the paradox create? (How does it add to the meaning of
the poem? How does it add to the reader’s understanding of the poem?)
29