what is figurative language? - north allegheny is figurative language? language that communicates...

What is figurative language?

Language that communicates meanings

beyond the literal meanings of words

Why do writers use figurative

language?

Used to create effects, to emphasize

ideas, and to evoke emotions in readers

Types of Figurative Language

Simile

Metaphor

Hyperbole

Personification

Onomatopoeia

Simile

Comparison between two unlike things

using the word like or as

Examples:

Mr. Saunders is as tall as a tree.

“The willow is like a nymph with streaming

hair…”

-Eve Merriam, “Simile: Willow and Gingko”

Simile - Practice

“O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June

O my Luve’s like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.”

-Robert Burns, “O My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose”

Identify the similes.

What is the speaker saying about his love?

Simile - Practice

“O my Luve's like a red, red rose

That's newly sprung in June

O my Luve’s like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.”

-Robert Burns, “O My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose”

What is the speaker saying about his love?

His love is new, fresh, and sweet.

Metaphor

Comparison of two things that are basically

unlike but have some qualities in common

Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not

contain the word like or as

Examples:

Love is a sad and lonely flower.

“The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the

purple moor…”

-Alfred Noyes, “The Highwayman”

Metaphor - Practice

“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune--without the words,

And never stops at all…”

-Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers”

Identify the metaphor.

What is the speaker comparing? What does it mean?

Metaphor - Practice

“Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune--without the words,

And never stops at all…”

-Emily Dickinson, “Hope is the thing with feathers”

What is the speaker comparing? What does it

mean? She is comparing hope to a bird

to signify that hope gives us the ability

to fly high to reach our dreams freely.

Hyperbole

Figure of speech in which the truth is

exaggerated for emphasis or a humorous

effect

Examples:

I was so embarrassed I could have died!

“Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world...”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Concord Hymn”

Hyperbole - Practice

“Why does a boy who’s fast as a jet

Take all day – and sometimes two –

To get to school?”

-John Ciardi, “Speed Adjustments”

Identify the hyperbole.

Hyperbole - Practice

“Why does a boy who’s fast as a jet

Take all day – and sometimes two –

To get to school?”

-John Ciardi, “Speed Adjustments”

Identify the hyperbole.

Personification

The giving of human qualities to an

animal, object, or idea

Examples:

The thunder boomed angrily.

The moon smiled down on Earth.

Personification - Practice

The trees shivered in the winter wind.

Identify the personification. What does it

mean?

Personification - Practice

The trees shivered in the winter wind.

Identify the personification. What does it

mean?

Trees cannot shiver. It is saying that

the branches were moving and

swaying because of the wind.

Onomatopoeia

Sound device in which authors use

words whose sounds echo their

meanings

Examples:

I knew I was close to the farm when I heard

the moo of a cow.

My sister told me to gargle with salt water

when I had a sore throat.

Onomatopoeia - Practice

“The whing of father’s racquet and the whack

Of brother’s bat on cousin’s ball...”

-Isabella Gardner, “Summer Remembered”

Identify the examples of onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia - Practice

“The whing of father’s racquet and the whack

Of brother’s bat on cousin’s ball...”

-Isabella Gardner, “Summer Remembered”

Identify the examples of onomatopoeia.

Other Literary Devices

Idiom

Oxymoron

Alliteration

Assonance

Imagery

Idiom

An expression that has a meaning different from the meaning of its individual words

Typically specific to a culture

Examples: Let’s get on the ball!

○ This doesn’t really mean to find a ball and sit on it. We use it to mean “Let’s start to work” or “Get organized.”

Shhh…don’t let the cat out of the bag.○ This doesn’t really mean to keep a cat inside of a

bag. We use it to mean “keep a secret.”

Oxymoron

Figure of speech that intentionally

combines two normally contradictory

terms

Examples:

Luke ate jumbo shrimp for dinner last night.

Jacoby Ellsbury was almost safe with his

attempt to steal second base, but Derek

Jeter made a spectacular play to tag him

out.

Oxymoron - Practice

“O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,

sick health!”

-William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

Identify the examples of oxymoron.

Oxymoron - Practice

“O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire,

sick health!”

-William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet

Identify the examples of oxymoron.

Alliteration

Sound device with the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words

Examples: Chelsi picked the darling daisies from the garden.

“Say to them,

say to the down-keepers,

the sun-slappers,

the self-spoilers…”

-Gwendolyn Brooks, “Speech to the Young: Speech to the Progress-Toward”

Alliteration - Practice

“And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing

a spark

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet…”

-Henry W. Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Identify the examples of alliteration.

Alliteration - Practice

“And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing

a spark

Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet…”

-Henry W. Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Identify the examples of alliteration.

Assonance

Sound device with the repetition of

vowel sounds within nonrhyming words

Examples:

“And the silken sad uncertain rustling of

each purple curtain…”

-Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”

“It’s had tacks in it…”

-Langston Hughes, “Mother to Son”

Assonance - Practice

“And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.”

-Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”

Identify the examples of assonance.

Assonance - Practice

“And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.”

-Edgar Allan Poe, “Annabel Lee”

Identify the examples of assonance.

Imagery

Descriptive words and phrases that

recreate sensory experiences for the

reader

Appeals to one or more of the five

senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste,

touch

Imagery

Example:

“The winter evening settles down

With smell of steaks in passageways.

Six o’clock.

The burnt-out ends of smoky days.

And now a gusty shower wraps

The grimy scraps

Of withered leaves about your feet…”

-T. S. Eliot, “Preludes”

Imagery - Practice

“This bed whose covers I straighten

smoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanket

and nothing hangs out.”

-Naomi Shihab Nye, “Daily”

Which sense is most addressed in the lines

above?

Imagery - Practice

“This bed whose covers I straightensmoothing edges till blue quilt fits brown blanketand nothing hangs out...”

-Naomi Shihab Nye, “Daily”

Which sense is most addressed in the lines above?

The sense of sight is appealed to the most.

Your Turn!

Identify the type of literary

device…..

Simile

He drew a line as straight as an

arrow.

He drew a line as

straight as an arrow.

Metaphor

Knowledge is a kingdom and all

who learn are kings and queens.

Knowledge is a kingdom

and all who learn are

kings and queens.

.

Assonance

He received three emails today.

He received three

emails today.

Hyperbole.

I'd rather take baths

with a man-eating shark,

or wrestle a lion

alone in the dark,

eat spinach and liver,

pet ten porcupines,

than tackle the homework,

my teacher assigns.

Metaphor

“I’m a black ocean…”

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear

in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

.

Personification

Thoughts entertaining.

For days on end, her

thoughts about him

entertained her..

Alliteration

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”

“From forth the fatal loins of these two foes;

A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life.”

“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O anything, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?”

“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!

O anything, of nothing first create!

O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!

Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!

This love feel I, that feel no love in this.

Dost thou not laugh?”

Oxymoron

“It went zip when it moved and bop when it

stopped,

And whirr when it stood still.

I never knew just what it was and I guess I

never will.”

Onomatopoeia

Zip, bog, whirr

“It went zip when it moved and bop when it

stopped,

And whirr when it stood still.

I never knew just what it was and I guess I

never will.”

Idiom

Play our cards right.

Kirk: If we play our cards right, we may be able to

find out when those whales are being released.

Spock: How will playing cards help?

(Captain James T. Kirk and Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, 1986).

“It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had

seen the damp lying on the outside of my little

window… Now, I saw the damp lying on the

bare hedges and spare grass,…. On every

rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-

mist was so thick, that the wooden finger on

the post directing people to our village—a

direction which they never accepted, for they

never came there—was invisible to me until I

was quite close under it.”

Imagery

“It was a rimy morning, and very damp. I had

seen the damp lying on the outside of my little

window… Now, I saw the damp lying on the

bare hedges and spare grass,…. On every

rail and gate, wet lay clammy; and the marsh-

mist was so thick, that the wooden finger on

the post directing people to our village—a

direction which they never accepted, for they

never came there—was invisible to me until I

was quite close under it.”