FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

POETRY A type of literature that expresses ideas, feelings, or tells a story in a specific form, usually using lines and stanzas.

 Abstract language refers to things that are intangible, that is, which are perceived not through the senses but by the mind, such as: hope, truth, God, education, transportation, war, and love.  Concrete language identifies things perceived through the senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste), such as: silky, soft, stench, red, loud, or bitter.  Literal language means exactly what it says; a rose is the physical flower. LANGUAGE

 changes the literal meaning, to make a meaning fresh or clearer, to express complexity, to capture a physical or sensory effect, or to extend meaning. Figurative language is also called figures of speech. The most common figures of speech are in the next slides. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

SIMILE  A comparison of two things using “like, as than,” or “resembles.” “She is as beautiful as a sunrise.”

METAPHOR  A direct comparison of two very different things without using “like” or “as”. My heart is broken. The heart is a metaphor for feelings..

HYPERBOLE  An exaggeration, often used for emphasis.

UNDERSTATEMENT  An expression of less strength than what would be accurate or expected. "It's just a flesh wound." - The Black Knight (after having both arms cut off, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

IDIOM  An expression where the literal meaning of the words is not the meaning of the expression. It means something other than what it actually says. Ex. “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

PERSONIFICATION  An animal or a thing given the abilities or characteristic s of people. My Town by Sharon Hendricks The leaves on the ground danced in the wind The brook sang merrily as it went on its way. The fence posts gossiped and watched cars go by which winked at each other just to say hi. The traffic lights yelled, ”Stop, slow, go!” The tires gripped the road as if clinging to life. Stars in the sky blinked and winked out While the hail was as sharp as a knife.

SYMBOLISM  When a person, place, thing, or event that has meaning in itself. It represents, or stands for, something else.

ALLUSION  A reference to something famous without an explanation. The reader is expected to already know about it. A tunnel walled and overlaid With dazzling crystal: we had read Of rare Aladdin’s wondrous cave, And to our own his name we gave. -From “Snowbound” John Greenleaf Whittier

IMAGERY  Language that appeals to the senses. Most images are visual, but they can also appeal to the senses of sound, touch, taste, or smell. then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather... from “Those Winter Sundays”

IRONY  Irony is words use in a way that is not the same as the literal meaning  You don’t get what you expect. A smoking gun in the hand of a skeleton wearing a pro-life T-shirt is ironic because of the conflicting ideas of live and death in the image.

PARADOX The Same By Francisco S. Alarcon we are all the same like pebbles in a riverbed each of us so different  Words that lead to a contradiction circle

OXYMORON  An oxymoron is a combination of words that contradict each other but somehow make sense. Ex. Pretty and ugly mean the opposite, but together they mean … “Pretty Ugly”

 a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by using multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, to be funny or make a point. PUN “nice to meet you” “so we can catch up”

APOSTROPHE  In literature, for the speaker to talk to someone who is not there, maybe dead, or a thing, as if able to talk with the speaker. "The Star" "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky." -Jane Taylor, 1806

 METONYMY  a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of one of its parts Hands means sailors (men)

REVIEW  figures of speech  poem/poetry  simile  metaphor  hyperbole  understatement  idiom  personification  sarcasm  allusion  symbolism  irony  paradox  oxymoron  apostrophe  pun

SOUND DEVICES

ONOMATOPOEIA  Words that imitate the sound they are naming BUZZ  OR sounds that imitate another sound

ALLITERATION  Consonant sounds repeated at the beginnings of words Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

CONSONANCE  The repeated CONSONANT sounds can be anywhere in the words. A consonant is any letter that is NOT A Vowel “silken, sad, uncertain, rustling..“

ASSONANCE  Repeated VOWEL sounds in a line or lines of poetry. Often creates near rhyme. LakeFateBaseFade -All share the long “a” sound.

 ASSONANCE Examples  “Slow the low gradual moan came in the snowing.” -John Masefield  “Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep.” - William Shakespeare

REFRAIN  A sound, word, phrase or line repeated at regular intervals, especially at the end of each stanza. A song’s refrain may be called the chorus. “Quote the raven, ‘Nevermore.’”

PARALLEL STRUCTURE  Using the same sentence pattern for more than one line of poetry. The lines use different nouns, verb, and/or adjectives, but have the same structure. “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. -Ben Franklin

REPITITION  the repeating of a word or phrase within a poem or a prose piece to create a sense of rhythm.  “His laugh, his dare, his shrug/ sag ghostlike…”