Figurative Language Study Guide
Definitions: (matching)
1. Simile
_______ A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.
2. Metaphor
_______ Is the use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest future action.
3. Personification
_______ Exaggeration for effect and not meant to be taken literally.
4. Hyperbole
_______ The usage of the same beginning sound in a sentence or multiple sentences
5. Alliteration
_______ A figure of speech that compares two different things using “like” or “as”
6. Onomatopoeia
_______ Are expressions that have hidden meanings.
7. Idioms
_______ Words whose sound suggests its meaning.
8. Foreshadowing
_______ Giving human qualities to ideas and things.
Directions: Respond to these questions to the best of your ability. Answer the questions completely. If you need more
space, use the back or a separate sheet.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Identify an example of personification: explain what is being personified how.
Identify an example of hyperbole: explain how it is exaggerated.
Identify an example of metaphor: explain which two things are being compared.
Find two separate examples of alliteration. List the alliterative words.
Where is repetition used in this poem? Why do you think that it is used this way?
What action is described in the third stanza of the poem?
How is imagery used in this poem? What is described?
What is the mood of this poem? How does it make you feel?
Sketch By Carl Sandbrug
The shadows of the ships
Rock on the crest
In the low blue lustre
Of the tardy and the soft inrolling tide.
A long brown bar at the dip of the sky
Puts an arm of sand in the span of salt.
The lucid and endless wrinkles
Draw in, lapse and withdraw.
Wavelets crumble and white spent bubbles
Wash on the floor of the beach.
Rocking on the crest
In the low blue lustre
Are the shadows of the ships.
Directions: Respond to these questions to the best of your ability. Answer the questions completely. If you need more
space, use the back or a separate sheet.
1. Identify two examples of personification: explain what is being personified how.
2. Identify an example of simile: explain which two things are being compared.
3. Identify an example of metaphor: explain which two things are being compared.
4. Find an example of alliteration. List the alliterative words.
5. Why is every other line contained in quotation marks? What is the effect of this technique?
6. In the third stanza of the poem, the speaker references “pinnedup sleeves”: why would someone pin their sleeves? To
what is the speaker referring and how do you know? Use evidence from the text.
7. What is the mood of this poem? How does it make you feel and why does it make you feel this way?
8. What is the message of this poem? In other words, what lesson is the author attempting to express with this poem?
Explain your answer.
I Sing the Battle
By Harry Kemp
I SING the song of the great clean guns that belch forth death at will.
“Ah, but the wailing mother, the lifeless forms and still!”
I sing the song of the billowing flags, the bugles that cry before.
“Ah, but the skeletons flapping rags, the lips that speak no more!”
I sing the clash of bayonets, of sabres that flash and cleave.
“And wilt thou sing the maimed ones, too, that go with pinnedup sleeve?”
I sing acclaimed generals that bring the victory home.
“Ah, but the broken bodies that drip like honey-comb!”
I sing of hosts triumphant, long ranks of marching men.
“And wilt thou sing the shadowy hosts that never march again?”
Identify the literary device (idiom or foreshadowing) and explain your answer.
“When Ruth Jones’s alarm clock woke her at seven o’clock that morning, she had no idea that today would be the longest
day of her life.”
Literary Device: _____________________________
What does this statement provide the reader?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
“Give it a shot”
Literary Device: __________________________
What does this statement mean?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
“Picture the scene… We are in the cockpit of an airplane. The plane hits turbulence and the captain struggles to regain
control. It doesn’t last long, and everything is soon seemingly fine again…”
Literary Device: __________________
What can the reader take away from the statement above? and Why?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Fred left the house at eleven o’clock and drove into town. He was meeting his father for lunch at Brown’s. Officially, they
were just ‘catching up’, but they both knew Fred needed money again-and not such a small amount this time, either.”
Literacy Device: ______________
What does this statement inform the reading about?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
“The icing on the cake.”
Literacy Device: _____________
What does this mean?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Get off your high horse”
Literacy Device: _____________
What does this mean?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Write 5 of your own hyperboles.
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
2._________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Read each sentence and circle the onomatopoeic word. Also explain what makes this noise.
1. During a dangerous mission on the foreign planet, Spaceman Spiff zapped the alien with his ray-gun. What made the
noise? ____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. As Daryl was gargling his mouthwash, he regretted starting his day with orange juice. What made the noise?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Keith threw his brother on the ground and the dishes fell to the floor with a clatter. What made the noise?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
4. As the solider ran through the field, a bullet whizzed by his ear. What made the noise?
________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Juan had a hard time hearing the teacher over his grumbling stomach. What made the noise?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Now write some alliteration of your own. Think of a noun that starts with the same sound as each of these
adjectives. Your noun can be a person, an animal, a fruit or vegetable or anything else you want.
1. big ___ book_____
__________________________________________________________
2. cold___________
__________________________________________________________
3. green____________
__________________________________________________________
4. jolly_____________
__________________________________________________________
5. young ___________
__________________________________________________________