1. Figurative Language: Metaphors
Extended Metaphor Poems

2. Review from Yesterday
Directions: Skip 2 pages in your Writer’s Notebook to save room for more figurative language notes. On the next clean page, label it “Extended Metaphors” and complete the exercise below. Write “Fig. Lang. Review” and label 1-8. Then, for each of the examples below, decide whether it is a simile, metaphor, personification, or hyperbole. 1. You are the sunshine of my life. 2. The wind screamed as it raced around the house. 3. Jimmy is as fit as a fiddle. 4. The stage that the band performed on was as solid as the ground we stand on. 5. He slithered into town so silently, no one noticed when he dug his fangs in and poisoned their minds. 6. The camera loved her! 7. I was so busy last night, I was doing ten million things at once. 8. His speech went on forever.

3. Focus on Simile and Metaphor
Why use simile and metaphor?
Metaphors help us to
visualize a situation and make it come alive
trigger emotions
explain a complicated idea

4. Simile and Metaphor from Music
I'm-a cut his pride with my lyrical sword and give him never healing stitches.
I'm snapping necks like swans diving in the shallow end.
I’m a broken chair. I’ll put you on the floor.
I see you, but I don’t feel you. You’re a hologram.
"My girls are like boomerangs. No matter how far I throw them, they come back."

5. How do we develop a good metaphor?
School is a _____________. Brainstorm reasons why…

6. Life is a _________________. Brainstorm reasons why…..

7. The Extended Metaphor
Definition: A metaphor that continues over multiple sentences, and that is sometimes extended throughout an entire work. Why Writers Use it: Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. They highlight a comparison in a more intense way than simple metaphors or similes. If someone was unloving, you could simply say that their heart was ice. But if you wanted to really drive home the point, you might say, “Their heart was icy, their blood frosty, their ventricles filled with icicles, their words turning to ice cubes that would chill an already chilly iced tea.”

8. Example:
What does Will Ferrell compare his schooling experience to? What are some of the examples he used? Why do they work? How is this metaphor effective?

9. Writing an Extended Metaphor Poem
Your assignment is to write an extended metaphor poem about your family. Begin by completing the sentence below, filling in the blank with something that is very different from a traditional idea of family. My family is a _____________ Next, brainstorm a list of ways your family is like this item. Use this brainstorm to shape an extended metaphor poem. Write your poem on the next clean page in your Writer’s Notebook. Label the poem “My Family Is”

10. My Family Is Example Poem
Medicine of Family
My family lives inside a medicine chest: Dad is the super-size band aid, strong and powerful but not always effective in a crisis. Mom is the middle-size tweezer, which picks and pokes and pinches. David is the single small aspirin on the third shelf, sometimes ignored. Muffin, the sheep dog, is a round cotton ball, stained and dirty, that pops off the shelf and bounces in my way as I open the door. And I am the wood and glue which hold us all together with my love.

11. “My Family Is” Example
Fifth of July My family is an expired firecracker set off by the blowtorch of divorce. We lay scattered in many directions. My father is the wick, badly burnt but still glowing softly. My mother is the blackened paper fluttering down, blowing this way and that, unsure where to land. My sister is the fallen, colorful parachute, lying in a tangled knot, unable to see the beauty she holds. My brother is the fresh, untouched powder that was protected from the flame. And I, I am the singed, outside papers, curled away from everything, silently cursing the blowtorch.