1. Figurative Language

2. Figurative Language & Figurative Devices
Figurative language is when a writer uses figures of speech to be more effective, persuasive, or impactful.
Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, or allusions go beyond the literal meanings of the words to give the readers new insights.
Figurative language can appear in multiple forms with the use of different literary and rhetorical devices.
On the other hand, figurative devices such as alliteration, imagery, or onomatopoeias are used to appeal to the senses of the readers.
Figurative Language & Figurative Devices

3. A simile is a descriptive phrase used to compare one thing with another to illustrate or exemplify common or similar attributes between them.
Similes commonly follow the same format so they’re easy to identify in a sentence. The two types of simile you will come across are:
1. Those that make a comparison using the word ‘as’. E.g. ‘He was as tall as a tree’.
2. Those that make a comparison using the word ‘like’. E.g. ‘She sings like an angel’.
Simile

4. Simile Pop culture examples:
“New money, suit and tie, I can read you like a magazine” (Taylor Swift – “Blank Space”)
“I’m like a bird, I’ll only fly away” (Nelly Furtado – “I’m Like a Bird”)
“Now I’m floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee I earned my stripes” (Katy Perry – “Roar”)
“You’re as cold as ice, you’re willing to sacrifice our love” (Foreigner – “Cold As Ice”)
“The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside, couldn’t keep it in, heaven knows I tried” (Elsa (Idina Menzel) – “Let It Go”)
“You spin me right round, baby Right round like a record, baby” (Dead or Alive – “You Spin Me Right Round”)
Simile

5. Simile From Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol:
“Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile; and my unhallowed hands shall not disturb it, or the Country’s done for. You will therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley was as dead as a door-nail.”
Simile

6. Daffodils I wander’d lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils, Beside the lake, beneath the trees Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretch’d in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glances Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. -William Wordworth
Simile

7. Simile Excerpts from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“When the twins left Scarlett standing on the porch of Tara and the last sound of flying hooves had died away, she went back to her chair like a sleepwalker.”
“…their secrets were her secrets; and even a hint of a mystery was enough to set her upon the trail as relentlessly as a bloodhound.”
“The very mystery of him excited her curiosity like a door that had neither lock nor key. The things about him which she could not understand only made her love him more…”
Simile

8. Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.
when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically.
Metaphor

9. Metaphor My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too angry.)
The assignment was a breeze. (This implies that the assignment was not difficult.)
It is going to be clear skies from now on. (This implies that clear skies are not a threat and life is going to be without hardships)
The skies of his future began to darken. (Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies that the coming times are going to be hard for him.)
Her voice is music to his ears. (This implies that her voice makes him feel happy)
Metaphor

10. But, soft. what light through yonder window breaks
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
What is the metaphor here? What is being compared?
Metaphor

11. …there may be two or three Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough
…there may be two or three Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.
I have had too much Of apple-picking; I am overtired Of the great harvest I myself desired.
Why is the following excerpt from Robert Frost’s “After Apple Picking” a metaphor example?
Metaphor

12. Personification is a figure of speech in which a thing, an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such a way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.
For example, when we say, “The sky weeps” we are giving the sky the ability to cry, which is a human quality. Thus, we can say that the sky has been personified in the given sentence.
Personification

13. Personification The wind whispered through dry grass.
The flowers danced in the gentle breeze.
Time and tide waits for none.
The fire swallowed the entire forest.
Personification

14. Personification Exerpt from John Knowles A Separate Peace
Peace had deserted Devon. Although not in the look of the campus and village; they retained much of their dreaming summer calm. Fall had barely touched the full splendor of the trees, and during the height of the day the sun briefly regained its summertime power. In the air there was only an edge of coolness to imply the coming winter. But all had been caught up, like the first fallen leaves, by a new and energetic wind.
Personification

15. “The Train” by Emily Dickenson And lick the valleys up, And stop to feed itself at tanks; And then, prodigious, step Around a pile of mountains, And, supercilious, peer In shanties by the sides of roads; And then a quarry pare To fit its sides, and crawl between, Complaining all the while In horrid, hooting stanza; Then chase itself down hill
Personification

16. Hyperbole, derived from a Greek word meaning “over-casting” is a figure of speech, which involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis.
It is a device that we employ in our day-to-day speech. For instance, when you meet a friend after a long time, you say, “Ages have passed since I last saw you”. You may not have met him for three or four hours or a day, but the use of the word “ages” exaggerates this statement to add emphasis to your wait.  Therefore, a hyperbole is an unreal exaggeration to emphasize the real situation
Hyperbole

17. Hyperbole Examples of hyperbole My grandmother is as old as the hills.
Your suitcase weighs a ton!
I am dying of shame.
I am trying to solve a million issues these days.
It is important not to confuse hyperbole with simile and metaphor. It does make a comparison but unlike simile and metaphor, hyperbole has a humorous effect created by an overstatement.
Hyperbole

18. Hyperbole
From W.H Auden’s poem “As I Walked One Evening” I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, I’ll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry What is the exaggeration here?

19. Hyperbole
From “The Adventures of Pinocchio” written by C. Colloid, “He cried all night, and dawn found him still there, though his tears had dried and only hard, dry sobs shook his wooden frame. But these were so loud that they could be heard by the faraway hills…” What is the exaggeration here?