Figurative Language Simile A comparison of two unlike

Figurative Language

Simile • A comparison of two unlike things using like or as • She is like a cow.

Metaphor • A comparison of two unlike things (explicit and implied) • She is a cow.

Hyperbole • An over exaggerated statement (not a comparison) • I have been waiting forever! • I could eat a horse!

Symbolism • When something represents something else • The lightning bolt in the Lightning Thief • The colors in the Book Thief

Personification • Giving an inanimate object human qualities • The dog laughed. • The waves whispered.

Identify the type of figurative language in the following poems. The type of figurative language is labeled, just find the example.

Metaphor • I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings • The free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wings in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky. But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage can seldom see through his bars of rage his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with fearful trill of the things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom The free bird thinks of another breeze an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees and the fat worms waiting on a dawnbright lawn and he names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unknown but longed for still and his tune is heard on the distant hill for the caged bird sings of freedom. • Maya Angelou

Personification • Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. • "Ah, William, we're weary of weather, " said the sunflowers, shining with dew. "Our traveling habits have tired us. Can you give us a room with a view? " • They arranged themselves at the window and counted the steps of the sun, and they both took root in the carpet where the topaz tortoises run. William Blake (1757 -1827)

Personification • The Train • I like to see it lap the miles, And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks; And then, prodigious, step • Around a pile of mountains, And, supercilious, peer In shanties by the sides of roads; And then a quarry pare • To fit its sides, and crawl between, Complaining all the while In horrid, hooting stanza; Then chase itself down hill And neigh like Boanerges; Then, punctual as a start its own, Stop-docile and omnipotent. A stable door. • By Emily Dickinson

Simile and Personification “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” LET us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question…. Oh, do not ask, “What is it? ” Let us go and make our visit. 5 10 In the room the women come and go Talking of Michelangelo. The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening, 15

Symbolism • The Road Not Taken • 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; And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I marked 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. 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 • Robert Frost same,

Hyperbole Practical Application He’s teaching her arithmetic, He said it was his mission, He kissed her once, he kissed her twice and said, “Now that’s addition. ” And as he added smack by smack In silent satisfaction, She sweetly gave the kisses back and said, “Now that’s subtraction. ” Then he kissed her, she kissed him, Without and explanation, And both together smiled and said, “That’s multiplication. ” Then Dad appeared upon the scene and Made a quick decision. He kicked that kid three blocks away And said, “That’s long division. ”

Test yourself • Identify the type of figurative language used in the following poems.

Joyce Kilmer. 1886– 1918 119. Trees I THINK that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the sweet earth's flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, 5 And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree. 10

Answers • Personification • Simile

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day Sonnet 18 William Shakespeare 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 dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st; Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest 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.

Answer • Metaphor

Wasatch High School • The Wasp

Answer • A symbol

Shoulders A man crosses the street in rain, Stepping gently, looking two times His ear fills up with breathing. north and south, He hears the hum of a boy’s dream Because his son is asleep on his Deep inside him. shoulders. No car must splash him. No car drive too near to his shadow. We’re not going to be able To live in this world If we’re not willing to do what he’s doing With one another. This man carries the world’s most sensitive cargo The road will only be wide. But he’s not marked. The rain will never stop falling. Nowhere does his jacket say -Naomi Shihab Nye FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE.

Answers • Metaphor • Symbolism

Appetite In a house the size of a postage stamp lived a man as big as a barge. His mouth could drink the entire river You could say it was rather large For dinner he would eat a trillion beans And a silo full of grain, Washed it down with a tanker of milk As if he were a drain.

Answer • Hyperbole

Assignment • Pick a popular song. • Using the music, rewrite the words to the song. • Your new lyrics should teach figurative language, meaning they should give the definition and an example for each kind of figurative language we learned. • Turn in your lyrics and be ready to present your new song to the class next time. • Examples can be found at these links: • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=y. Axi_PPp. G 9 Y • http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=8 k. DNCdb 3 v. SE