Figurative Language Guide

Mood

Literary Devices!

Figurative Language

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Symbols

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Repetition

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Imagery

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Tone

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Symbols

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Allusion

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Consonance

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Assonance

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Alliteration

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Idiom

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Allusion

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Onomatopoiea

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Personification

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Hyperbole

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Simile

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Metaphor

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The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes,

"The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas…"

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Metaphor is a common poetic device where an object in, or the subject of, a poem is described as being the same as another otherwise unrelated object.

Metaphor

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Simile is common poetic device. The subject of the poem is described by comparing it to another object or subject, using 'as' or 'like' For example, the subject may be 'creeping as quietly as a mouse' or be 'sly, like a fox.'

Simile

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A figure of speech composed of a striking exaggeration. For example, see James Tate’s lines “She scorched you with her radiance” or “He was more wronged than Job.” Hyperbole usually carries the force of strong emotion, as in Andrew Marvell’s description of a forlorn lover: The sea him lent those bitter tears Which at his eyes he always wears; And from the winds the sighs he bore, Which through his surging breast do roar. No day he saw but that which breaks Through frighted clouds in forkèd streaks, While round the rattling thunder hurled, As at the funeral of the world.

hyperbole

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Personification is a poetic device where animals, plants or even inanimate objects, are given human qualities – resulting in a poem full of imagery and description.

Personification

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Consider the first stanza of Jackie Kay's poem Way Down below in the Streets of Paris: I spied a small lonely boy. I was his beautiful red balloon, from morning through to noon, In this example, the poet is the red balloon, and the poem continues by describing the boy and the poet (as the balloon) sharing a walk through Parisian streets.

onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the 'formation of a word which describes its sound'. Exa It is a common feature in many poems written with children in mind. The onomatopoeia can sometimes form a refrain, that repeats through the poem, providing structure.

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sizzle, clap, moo, roar, tick tock, click, etc!

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Idioms are phrases which are commonly used and have a different meaning from how they sound. The meaning of an idiom is figurative, which means it has another meaning than what someone would typically think. For example, if someone didn't know that the idiom ''apple of my eye?'' had another meaning, they might think that it literally meant someone had apples in his or her eyes. Yet, because this is an idiom, it means something different. This idiom actually means that someone likes you and values you more than other people. That sounds much better than apples growing out of everyone's eyes!

idiom

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"That test was a piece of cake."

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Alliteration can be defined as a series of words, occurring close together in the phrases or lines of poetry, that have the same first consonant sound. The term itself derives from the Latin word “Latira”, meaning “letters of alphabet”.

alliteration

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Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers

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Assonance is the repetition of the vowel sound across words within the lines of the poem creating internal rhymes. Examples of assonance across words include: crying time; hop-scotch; great flakes; between trees; and, the kind knight rides by.

assonance

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Look at this stanza from John Agard’s poem 'Hopaloo Kangaroo': If you can boogaloo boogaloo I can do the boogaloo too for I’m the boogiest hopaloo kangaroo from The Puffin Book of Fantastic First Poems (Puffin, 2000) There are examples of the repeated /oo/ sound within the 1st, 4th and 6th lines (assonance), as well as it being used as a rhyme at the end of all the lines, except the 5th line.

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A resemblance in sound between two words, or an initial rhyme (see also Alliteration). Consonance can also refer to shared consonants, whether in sequence (“bed” and “bad”) or reversed (“bud” and “dab”)

consonance

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Sibilance is a subcategory of consonance. It is used to distinguish repeated consonant sounds that have a hushing or hissing quality, chiefly “s” and “sh,” such as in “uncertain rustling.”

Consonance is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in a line of text. These alike sounds can appear anywhere in the word, but will usually be found at its end or middle, or at the end of the stressed syllable. What’s vital is that the repetition occurs in quick succession, as in: pitter-patter twist and shout

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A brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement. “The Waste Land,” T. S. Eliot’s influential long poem is dense with allusions. The title of Seamus Heaney’s autobiographical poem “Singing School” alludes to a line from W.B. Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium” (“Nor is there singing school but studying /Monuments of its own magnificence”).

allusion

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Common References:Greek Myths The Bible Shakespearean plays The Titanic World War II

A brief, intentional reference to a historical, mythic, or literary person, place, event, or movement.

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The poet's attitude toward the poem's speaker, reader, and subject matter, as interpreted by the reader. The tone it is created by the poem's vocabulary, metrical regularity or irregularity, syntax, use of figurative language, and rhyme.

tone

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The author controls the tone - the reader interprets the mood

calm, fear, anger, joy, etc.

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A “mood” describes how word choice, subject matter, and the author's tone convey an overall feeling that characterizes the emotional landscape of a poem for readers.

mood

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Fig. Lang 12

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Imagery, in a literary or poetic sense, is the author's use of description and vivid language, deepening the reader's understanding of the work, by appealing to the senses.

imagery

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There are different types of imagery. These include:

• Visual imagery which refers to sights and allows the reader to visualise the subject, objects or events in the poem.

• Auditory imagery refers to sounds and reminds the reader of common or specific sounds as a point of reference to deepen understanding.
• Kinaesthetic imagery is related to movement and reminds the reader of body movement or positions that are familiar or imagined – such as the feeling of flying.
• Smells and tastes can be referred to as Olfactory or Gustatory imagery respectively.
• Tactile imagery refers to texture and feeling.

All imagery is aided through the use of other poetic devices, such as simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, etc.

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repetition

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Repetition either of a word or a phrase is used in poetry for emphasis. Some poetic forms such as Villanelles rely on repetition to create their structure.

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I Skipped School Today by Kwame Alexander

and drank soda and didn’t eat lunch and I almost got arrested and I hate math and tomorrow we have to play basketball in gym class and I’m not that good and I’m not that good at anything and who’s gonna teach me everything? and do I need to get a job? and why is everybody always sorry? and CJ’s dad is soooo cool and I’m not taking a shower tonight because I didn’t do anything all day but read comics and play Pac-Man and I still don’t feel any better than I did last week or yesterday or when I woke up and I’m tired so can I please just stay in my room turn out the lights and hide inside the darkness that owns me? Please. Charlie, I asked you how was school?

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symbols

Fig. Lang 14

A symbol is a person, object, place, event, or action that suggests/represents more than its literal meaning.

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

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