Figurative Language Chart
The repetition of initial
consonant sounds in two or
more neighboring words or
syllables.
Sally sells seashells at the
seashore.
A word or phrase that has
become so familiar that its lost
its meaning.
You can’t teach an old dog new
tricks.
A deliberate exaggeration,
often creating humor but not
always.
My house is so large I need a
map to find my room.
It’s raining cats and dogs.
Idiom
A phrase that does not have
the same meaning as what it
says.
Metaphor
Comparing two unlike things
without using the words “like”
or “as.” Usually using the verb
“to be”
Alliteration
Cliché
Hyperbole
Onomatopoeia
Oxymoron
Personification
Simile
The clouds were
marshmallows.
A word that imitates the sound
associated with it.
Click, hiss, buzz, roar.
A figure of speech with two
terms that appear to contradict
one another.
Deafening silence.
Assigning human qualities to a
non-human object or thing.
The tall grass danced in the
breeze.
A figure of speech comparing
two unlike things using “like”
or “as.”
The little elephant was quiet as
a mouse.
Prayer to Masks
Leopold Senghor
Chinua Achebe vividly describes the egwugwu ceremony, in which the masks that allow people
to represent spirits come to life. In the following poem by Leopold Senghor, the speaker calls
upon masks to provide guidance for a generation of Africans struggling to overcome
colonialism.
Mask! Mask!
Black mask red mask, you white-and-black masks
Mask of the four points from which the Spirit blows
In silence I salute you!
Nor you the least, the Lion-headed Ancestor
You guard this place forbidden to all laughter of women, to all smiles that fade
You distil this air of eternity in which I breathe the air of my Fathers.
Masks of unmasked faces, stripped of the marks of illness and the lines of age
You who have fashioned this portrait, this is my face bent over the alter of white
paper
In your own image, hear me!
The Africa of the empires is dying, see, the agony of a pitiful princess
And Europe too where we are joined by the navel.
Fix your unchanging eyes upon your children, who are given orders
Who give away their lives like the poor their last clothes.
Let us report present at the rebirth of the World
Like the yeast which white flour needs.
For who would teach rhythm to a dead world of machines and guns?
Who would give the cry of joy to wake the dead and the bereaved at dawn?
Say, who would give back the memory of life to the man whose hopes are
smashed?
They call us men of coffee cotton oil
They call us men of death
We are the men of the dance, whose feet draw new strength pounding the hardened
earth.
1. What are “masks of unmasked faces” (line 8)?
2. What does the technique of personifying Africa as “a pitiful princess” (line 11) achieve?
3. In what ways would Africa and Europe metaphorically have been “joined by the navel”
(line 12)?
4. Examine the simile in line 16, “like the yeast which white flour needs.” What does this
simile mean? What components in the “yeast” enable it to help “white flour” become bread?
5. Identify elements of the fertility cycle in the poem. What is the effect?
6. Interpret the meaning of the poem’s title.
7. Using your figurative language chart, identify four examples of figurative language.
Line from the Poem
Type of Figurative
Language
Effect on Overall Poem