FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE NOTES

1
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE NOTES

• Thursday, January 18, 2007

2
Figurative Language

• Words used in an unusual, creative way.
• Figurative Lang. is often symbolic. (one thing
  represents another)
• Examples include similes, metaphors,
  personification, onomatopoeia, and alliteration.

3
Similes

• Compares two unlike things.
• Uses like or as to compare the two things.
• Example Her eyes were like
• two bright, yellow stars, shining in the sky.

4
Metaphors

• Compares two unlike things NOT using like or as,
  often using a form of the BE verb (is, am, are,
  was, were)
• Example His hair was a springy mass of
  corkscrews.

5
Personification

• Gives human characteristics to something that is
  not human.
• Poets use this to make objects seem like they
  are alive.
• Example The mountains dared me to try their
  treacherous slopes.

6
Personification

• There are 2 ways to use personification
• 1. Describes an object using a human emotion.
• Example When the lights went out, darkness
  invaded the room.
• 2. Describes an object using human action.
• Example The sun glared at us wickedly.

7
Alliteration

• Consonant sounds that are repeated at the
  beginning of two or more words.
• Example With a wild whoop, the warriors charged.

8
Onomatopoeia

• Words that imitate sounds.
• Examples Cars zipped past with engines roaring.

9
Name the figurative language!

• I saw two trees embracing.
• One leaned on the other
• as if to throw her down.
• But she was the upright one.
• --May Swenson

10
Name the figurative language!

• You may write me down in
• history
• With your bitter, twisted lies
• You may trod me in the very
• dirt
• But still, like dust, I rise.
• --Maya Angelou

11
Name the figurative language!

• The moon sobs
• open-mouthed
• and stars hang
• like tears
• on the cheeks of night
• --Moira Andrew

12
Name the figurative language

• Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
• Would not take the garbage out!
• Shed scour the pots and scrape
• the pans,
• Candy the yams and spice the
• hams
• --Shel Silverstein

13
Name the figurative language

• hist whist
• little ghostthings
• tip-toe
• twinkle-toe
• --e.e. cummings

14
Name the figurative language

• Double, double toil and
• trouble
• Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
• --William Shakespeare

15
Name the figurative language

• What happens to a dream
• deferred?
• Does it dry up
• like a raisin in the sun?
• --Langston Hughes

16
Name the figurative language

• Outside,
• A few cars hissing past,
• Fog hanging like old
• Coats between the trees.
• --Gary Soto