figurative language

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figurative language
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simile

• Comparison
• Like or as
• Ex. Her face was like the sun. It radiated light
  whenever she saw her secret crush.
• Ex. The boy moves as slow as a snail. It takes
  him forever to get anywhere.

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Simile Poem

• You dont call
• anymore.
• You say
• It hurts
• too much
• your heart
• like one of
• those
• fragile cactus flowers
• cast amongst
• thorny ribs.
• So ready
• to be
• hurt.

Cautious
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Simile Poem

• So just kiss me and let my hair
• messy itself in your fingers
• tell me nothing needs to be done
• no clocks need winding
• There is no bell without a voice
• needing to borrow my own
• instead, let me steady myself
• in the arms
• of a man who wont ask me to be
• what he needs, but lets me exist
• as I am
• a blonde flame
• a hurricane

So Just Kiss Me
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Simile Poem

• When I watch you
• wrapped up like garbage
• sitting, surrounded by the smell
• of too old potato peels or
• when I watch you
• in your old mans shoes
• with the little toe cut out
• sitting, waiting for your mind
• like next weeks grocery

miss rosie By Lucille Clifton
I say when I watch you you wet brown bag of a
woman who used to be the best looking gal in
Georgia used to be called the Georgia Rose I
stand up through your destruction I stand up
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metaphor

• Comparison
• Is (or some other form of the verb to be)
• Extended metaphor continues the comparisons for
  some time and may include several comparisons
• Ex. He is a pig. He likes to wallow in filth,
  and he is a selfish, messy person.
• Ex. She is a mouse. She is very small and quiet.

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Metaphor Poem

• Lost
• is a puzzle
• of stars
• that breathes
• like water
• and chews
• like stone
• Alone
• is a reminder
• of how far
• acceptance
• is from
• Understanding

Fear is a bird that believes itself into
extinction Desperation the honest
recognition of a false truth Hope seeing
who you really are at your highest is who you
will become Grace the refinement of a Soul
through time
Lost
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Extended Metaphor Poem

• The sun spun like
• a tossed coin.
• It whirled on the azure sky,
• it clattered into the horizon,
• it clicked in the slot,
• and neon-lights popped
• and blinked Time expired,
• as on a parking meter.

Sunset by Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali
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Metaphor Simile Poem

• It cannot be so
• you say
• simple hands
• cannot change
• the fate of humanity.
• I say
• Humanity is
• a boundless,
• absorbing heart
• transcending
• death generations
• and centuries
• absorbing bullets
• and stitches
• and tear gas

You Tell Me
enduring humiliation and illegal abortions and
thankless jobs I say to you the heart of
Humanity has not and will not be broken And let
us raise ourselves like lanterns with the
millions of others with the mad and the
forgotten and the strong of heart to shine
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personification

• Giving a nonhuman object human qualities
• Ex. The wool sweater embraced Suzanne on those
  cold, snowy days.
• Ex. The sun drove its chariots across the sky.

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Personification Poem
Christmas in Hawaii

• The sky pierces me
• with its turquoise embrace.
• The scent of lemons
• and suntan oil find
• their way to me
• by the pool
• No one is here.
• I walk the beaches alone
• and drink silly concoctions
• with little paper umbrellas.

In my room, my guitar is calling to me. I will go
to it soon and write songs for love lost and for
love yet to come. Merry Christmas, baby,
goodnight.
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Personification Poem

• The Wind tapped like a tired Man
• And like a Host Come in
• I boldly answered entered then
• My residence within
• A Rapid footless Guest
• To offer whom a Chair
• Were as impossible as hand
• A sofa to the air
• No Bone had He to bind Him
• His Speech was like the Push
• Of numerous Humming Birds at once
• From a superior Bush

The Wind tapped like a tired Man by Emily
Dickinson
His Countenance a Billow His Fingers, as He
passed Let go a music as of tunes Blown
tremulous in Glass He visited still flitting
Then like a timid Man Again, He tapped twas
flurriedly And I became alone --
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Personification PoemThe Slow Migration of
Glaciers
To run free with you once more to let my hair
tangle itself in a wind that knows only
motion to lose my heart once again in the thorns
of primrose on the plains of Fox River
Valley lost in a maze of Timothy and Blue Grass
hay. These are the things which made me these
are the things I call home these are the things
that have filled my heart with song and I raise
them now in homage

• The slow migration of glaciers
• unfolding through the centuries
• their heavy wing
• burdened with all the
• weight of the earth
• they move and carve and breathe
• swollen rivers thick with soot
• my pony and I drawing
• deep sharp breaths
• as we cross
• submerged
• in all that is natural and Holy

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• my father and I riding until after dark
• casing cattle or starling eagles into flight
• cooking on a coal stove
• cutting meat with a dull knife
• my hands raw from picking rose hips
• on the sea cliffs above Kackamack Bay
• staring endlessly at the blue sky
• Few would guess now how much I miss
• you Alaska
• how my heart grows
• heavy out here
• so far away

So much talk so much noise strangling all
stillness so I can no longer hear the voice of
god whisper to me in the silence I will return
to you, Alaska, my beloved, but for now I am
youths soldier chasing down an endless dawn
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Figurative Language PoemAwaken Love
Awaken love, we are a pair two knives, two
flags two slender stocks of wheat And the song
that sleeps inside your mouth is the song which
bids my heart to beat For without your
hands Your battle cry Your timid fearless Roaming
eye I would be awkward hands with no flag with no
pulse no boast to brag

• Awaken love,
• the sun beats itself
• upon our windowsill
• and dawn is well spent into the day
• Awaken, love
• open your eyes
• lighting all they touch upon
• in wondrous blaze
• Upon the streets
• a kittens mew
• and beggars shoe
• are calling
• and the voiceless
• ask to borrow yours
• so sweet and
• always falling

but alone, simply Alone Staring down an endless
sky unable to face injustice or even I A tigers
loveless soldier