Literary Devices

Literary Devices used by poets

• Figurative Language : symbol, simile, metaphor

• Extended Metaphor• Hyperbole • Personification• Imagery

Figures of Speech or Figurative language: using words in a non-literal

or unusual sense

• For example: “I am so hungry I could eat a cow.”• - “That zit on your face is like a mountain”• Literal –by the letter – the thing is the thing.• For example: the literal meaning of “I am so

hungry I could eat a cow” is you eat an entire cow. -How many burgers is that?

• Which ones do you know of ?

Symbolism – to make one thing represent another

• For example:

• represents what?

• Is a symbol of what?

Symoblism in poetry• ‘The Road Not Taken’ –by Robert Frost• http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15717

• ‘Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night’ –by Dylan Thomas

• http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15377

• ‘Me Against the World’ – Tupac Shakur• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cjv7hEAytU

Simile: comparing two things using like or as

• Example: Tears flowed like a river.• My love is like a red, red, rose.

• ‘A Simile’ by Navarre Scott Momaday What did we say to each otherthat now we are as the deerwho walk in single filewith heads highwith ears forwardwith eyes watchfulwith hooves always placed on firm groundin whose limbs there is latent flight

‘A Dream Deferred’ by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?-‘Still I Rise’:http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15623http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnunOifOLk = Kweli

Metaphor: one thing is used in an unusual way to compare it to another

• Example: “ The world is a stage.”• “ When I look at you my heart is a bird in flight.”• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings –Maya Angelou• . . . ’The caged bird sings

with fearful trillof the things unknownbut longed for stilland is tune is heardon the distant hillfor the caged birdsings of freedom’ . . .

• -Top 10 in Hip-Hop http://www.flocabulary.com/hiphopmetaphors.html

• -“The People” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7B2VgRShew

Extended Metaphor

• a metaphor that continues throughout a few lines, a page, chapter, or an entire poem or story.

• Hope as a "Little Bird"

"Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune--without the words,And never stops at all,

"And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.

"I've heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me.” -Emily Dickinson

Check out: Diego spitting his poem

Personification

– to give a thing human/person-like qualities

“The fog comes on little cat feet it sits looking over the river and city on silent legs then moves on.” - C. Sandberg

My Life Stood – A Loaded Gun• My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -

In Corners - till a DayThe Owner passed - identified -And carried Me away - And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -And now We hunt the Doe -And every time I speak for Him -The Mountains straight reply -

• And do I smile, such cordial lightUpon the Valley glow -It is as a Vesuvian faceHad let its pleasure through -

• And when at Night - Our good Day done -I guard My Master's Head -. . . -Emily Dickenson

• -”I Gave You Power” -Nas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXAtUR80IOQ• -Start at: 28 seconds into it

Hyperbole

• -extreme exaggeration

• “This book weighs a ton.”• “I am so hungry I can eat a cow.”

• Rhyme & Rhyme Scheme• Alliteration• Onomatopoeia

Rhyme

• Active Rhyme – identical recurring sounds in words i.e. – cat and hat

• Passive Rhyme – similar recurring sounds in words

i.e. – eject and rechecked

see rhyme zone

Rhyming Scheme

• - the pattern of rhyming linesabab= abba= the dog (a) the dog (a) and the cat (b) and the cat (b) the log (a) the bat (b) and the bat. (b) and the log (a)

Alliteration –repetition of an initial sound in two or more words

• “. . . What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!” -Poe

• “Swing low, sweet chariot, Comin for to carry me home. “ -Spiritual

Alliteration

• “. . . Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,Do not go gentle into that good night. . . .” -Dylan Thomas

• Daddy's Gone A Hunting • Bye, baby bunting,

Daddy's gone a - hunting,Gone to get a rabbit skinTo wrap baby bunting in. -Mother Goose

• -Blackalicious http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvPnM2Q1nwU

Onomatopoeia – using words for sounds

• For example - Buzz, Pow, Ugh, Tick-tock, Bam!

Horray for HalloweenWhen cats howl “Meow”And howls hoot “Hoo”And witches fly up in the skyHorray for Halloween “Boo!”

Created by

Joe Tedesco