Figurative Language and Types
of Poetry
• Mr Pettine
• English 9 – August 13
Figurative Language and Literary
Terms
9/16/14
English 9
Mr. Pettine
Allusion
• A reference to a historical aspect, person, or a
text.
• Example: “No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor
was meant to be; Am an attendant lord, one
that will do
• To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
• Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool” –
“Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – T.S. Eliot
Simile
• A comparison between of two unlike things
using like or as
• Example: “My love is like a red, red, rose /
That’s newly sprung in June” – “Red, Red,
Rose” -- Robert Burns
Epic Simile
• Also known as Homeric Simile, is a detailed
comparison in the form of a simile that is
many lines in length
• Example: “Think of a catch that fishermen
haul in to a half-moon bay / in a fine meshed
net from the whitecaps of the sea; / how all are
poured out on the sand, in throes for the salt
sea, / Twitching their cold lives away in
Helios’ fiery air; / so lay the suitors heaped on
one another”
Metaphor
• A comparison of two unlike things not using
like, as, than, or resembles
• EXAMPLE: “All the world's a stage,/
And all the men and women merely players;/
They have their exits and their entrances;” –
As You Like It – William Shakespeare
Hyperbole
• A figure of speech using extreme exaggeration
• EXAMPLE: “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand
brothers / Could not with all their quantity of
love / Make up my sum.” -- Hamlet – William
Shakespeare
Idiom
• Expression peculiar to a particular language
that means something different from the literal
meaning of each word.
• EXAMPLE: “That blouse costs an arm and a
leg,” and “You’re pulling my leg!”
Imagery
• Writing that appeals to the senses.
• EXAMPLE: “Sling your knuckles on the
bottoms of the happy tin pans, let your
trombones ooze, and go husha-husha-hush
with the slippery sand-paper.” – “Jazz
Fantasia” – Carl Sandburg
Oxymoron
• A combination of two contradictory terms,
• EXAMPLE: “His honour rooted in dishonour
stood, /And faith unfaithful kept him falsely
true.” Idylls of the King – Alfred Tennyson
• EASIER EXAMPLES: Living dead, deafening
silence, sweet sorrow
Personification
• The use of human qualities in non-human subjects
• EXAMPLE: “There was no answer from outside, so Rikki-tikki knew
Nagaina had gone away. Nag coiled himself down, coil by coil, round the
bulge at the bottom of the water-jar, and Rikki-tikki stayed still as death.
After an hour he began to move, muscle by muscle, toward the jar. Nag
was asleep, and Rikki-tikki looked at his big back, wondering which would
be the best place for a good hold. ``If I don't break his back at the first
jump,'' said Rikki, ``he can still fight; and if he fights -- O Rikki!'' He
looked at the thickness of the neck below the hood, but that was too much
for him; and a bite near the tail would only make Nag savage.” – “RikkiTikki Tavi” – Rudyard Kipling
Epithet
• Adjective or descriptive phrase that is
regularly used to characterize a person, place,
or thing.
• EXAMPLE: “When the child of morning,
rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared…” The
Odyssey – Homer
• “To his house went the goddess, grey-eyed
Athena, devising a return for the great-hearted
Odysseus.” The Odyssey -- Homer
Euphemism
• Use of inoffensive words to replace something
which is harsh, unpleasant, or possibly
offensive
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EXAMPLES: “a little thin on top” – bald
“Powder room” – go to restroom
“in the family way” – pregnant
“visit from the stork” – give birth
Dialect
• Regional variety of language, a regional
variety of a language, with differences in
vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation
• EXAMPLE: Jim: “We’s safe, Huck, we’s
safe! Jump up and crack yo’ heels. Dat’s de
good ole Cairo at las’, I jis knows it.”
Huck: “I’ll take the canoe and go see, Jim. It
mightn’t be, you know.” – Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Lyric Poem
• A lyric poem is a highly musical verse
that expresses the thoughts, observations,
and feelings of a single speaker.
Lyric Poem
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I hid my love when young till I
Couldn't bear the buzzing of a fly;
I hid my love to my despite
Till I could not bear to look at light:
I dare not gaze upon her face
But left her memory in each place;
Where'er I saw a wild flower lie
I kissed and bade my love good-bye
John Clare “I Hid My Love”
Ballad
• A ballad is a song that tells a story.
Literary ballads are poems which often
contain sensational stories of tragedy or
adventure. Often feature repetition and
have regular rhyme schemes
Ballad
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When John Henry was a little tiny baby
Sitting on his mama's knee,
He picked up a hammer and a little piece of steel
Saying, "Hammer's going to be the death of me, Lord, Lord,
Hammer's going to be the death of me."
John Henry was a man just six feet high,
Nearly two feet and a half across his breast.
He'd hammer with a nine-pound hammer all day
And never get tired and want to rest, Lord, Lord,
And never get tired and want to rest. -- Anonymous “John
Henry”
Sonnet
• A fourteen line lyric poem, usually in
rhymed iambic pentameter. The
Shakespearean sonnet consists of three
quatrains (4 line stanzas) and a couplet.
The Petrarchan sonnet consists of an
octave (8 line stanza) and a sestet (6 line
stanza).
Sonnet
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
• Sonnet 18 - Shakespeare
Narrative Poem
• A narrative poem is one that tells a story.
Narrative Poem
• 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
Epic
• An epic is a long narrative poem about the
deeds of gods or heroes. An epic is
elevated in style and usually follows
certain patterns. An epic reflects the
qualities and values of a society.
Oral Tradition
• Oral Tradition – the passing of the songs,
stories, and poems from generation to
generation. Many folk songs, ballads, fairy
tales, legends, and myths originated in the
oral tradition.
Epic Simile
• Also known as Homeric Simile, is a
detailed comparison in the form of a simile
that is many lines in length
• Example: “Think of a catch that fishermen
haul in to a half-moon bay / in a fine
meshed net from the whitecaps of the sea;
/ how all are poured out on the sand, in
throes for the salt sea, / Twitching their
cold lives away in Helios’ fiery air; / so lay
the suitors heaped on one another”