Go Figure!

Figurative Language

Grades 6-8

Recognizing Figurative Language The opposite of literal language is figurative

language. Figurative language is language that means more than what it says on the surface.

It usually gives us a feeling about its subject. Poets use figurative language almost as

frequently as literal language. When you read poetry, you must be conscious of the difference. Otherwise, a poem may make no sense at all.

Printed Quiz Online Quiz

Recognizing Literal Language “I’ve eaten so much I feel as if I could

literally burst!” In this case, the person is not using the word

literally in its true meaning. Literal means "exact" or "not exaggerated." By pretending that the statement is not exaggerated, the person stresses how much he has eaten.

Literal language is language that means exactly what is said.

Most of the time, we use

literal language.

What is figurative language?

Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else,

you are using figurative language.

Types of Figurative Language

Imagery Simile Metaphor Personification Alliteration Onomatopoeia Hyperbole Oxymoron

Imagery Language that appeals to the senses.

Descriptions of people or objects stated in terms of our senses.

• Sight • Hearing • Touch • Taste • Smell

Imagery

The sun beat relentlessly down, casting a glare over the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the willows bordering the pond hung. Our backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our clothes and plunged into the pond, but the water only stifled us and we soon climbed onto the bank. Our parched throats longed for something cool—ice or lemonade.

The hot July sun beat relentlessly down, casting an orange glare over the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the usually cool green willows bordering the pond hung wilted and dry. Our sun-baked backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our sweaty clothes and plunged into the pond, but the tepid water only stifled us and we soon climbed onto the brown, dusty bank. Our parched throats longed for something cool--a strawberry ice, a tall frosted glass of lemonade.

The hot July sun beat relentlessly down, casting an orange glare over the farm buildings, the fields, the pond. Even the usually cool green willows bordering the pond hung wilted and dry. Our sun-baked backs ached for relief. We quickly pulled off our sweaty clothes and plunged into the pond, but the tepid water only stifled us and we soon climbed onto the brown, dusty bank. Our parched throats longed for something cool--a strawberry ice, a tall frosted glass of lemonade.

We pulled on our clothes, crackling underbrush, the sharp briars pulling at our damp jeans, until we reached the watermelon patch. As we began to cut open the nearest melon, we could smell the pungent skin mingling with the dusty odor of the dry earth. Suddenly, the melon gave way with a crack, revealing the deep, pink sweetness inside.

Imagery

Pink= , Brown= , Blue= , Red= , Teal=Touch Sound Smell Sight Taste

Simile A figure of speech which involves a

direct comparison between two unlike things, usually with the words like or as.

Example: The weight is as heavy as an elephant.

Metaphor A figure of speech which involves an

implied comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of be. The comparison is not announced by like or as.

Example: The road was a ribbon wrapped through the desert.

Personification A figure of speech which gives the qualities of

a person to an animal, an object, or an idea.

Example: “The wind yells while blowing." The wind cannot yell. Only a living thing can yell.

Life is a merry go round.

A. simile

B. metaphor

C. personification

The bird is like a plane in flight.

A. Simile

B. Metaphor

C. Personification

The trees wave in the wind.

A. Simile

B. Metaphor

C. Personification

Her eyes are like diamonds.

A. Simile

B. Metaphor

C. Personification

My bedroom is heaven.

A. Simile

B. Metaphor

C. Personification

The alarm clock screeched that it was time to get up.

A. Simile

B. metaphor

C. Personification

Alliteration Repeated consonant sounds occurring at

the beginning of words.

Example: She was wide-eyed and wondering while she waited for Walter to waken.

Assonance Repeated vowel sounds occurring within

words.

Example: Try to light the fire

OnomatopoeiaThe use of words that mimic sounds.

Example: The firecracker made a loud ka-boom!

Hyperbole An exaggerated statement used to

heighten effect. It is not used to mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point.

Example: I am so hungry I could eat a horse.

Oxymoron

•A rhetorical device in which two seemingly contradictory words are used together for effect

•Examples: jumbo shrimp, pretty ugly,

icy hot, plastic glass, fun run

If I have told you once, I have told you a million times. A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. –Helen Keller A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

O heavy lightness, serious vanity,A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

There is always something left to love, and if you ain’t learned that, you ain’t learned nothing. A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Simile

D. Oxymoron

The cat purrs and meows.

A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

The cat is pretty ugly.

A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

If I get any wetter, I'll have to grow gills. A. Hyperbole

B. Onomatopoeia

C. Alliteration

D. Oxymoron

Other Elements of Poetry

Symbolism Irony Allusion

Symbolism

Something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance

Irony

The use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning

A technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually stated.

•“My Name is Earl” is an example of irony because…

Earl wins the lottery, and immediately after, he gets hit by a bus.

Allusion

An implied or indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text.

‘Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter

And my daddy said stay away from Juliet

But you were everything to me

I was begging you please don’t go and I said

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone

Taylor Swift

"I was not born in a manger. I was actually born on Krypton and sent here by my father, Jor-el, to save the Planet Earth."(Senator Barack Obama, speech at a fund-raiser for Catholic charities, October 16, 2008)

A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

Two animal rights activists were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn. Suddenly the pigs, all two thousand of them, escaped through a broken fence and stampeded, trampling the two hapless

protesters to death. A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

"Christy didn't like to spend money. She was no Scrooge, but she seldom purchased anything

except the bare necessities". A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

A country’s flag is an example of what?

A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

The crabs being thrown over the boat in The Red Kayak is an example of:

A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

In My Brother Sam is Dead, Sam was killed for stealing his own cattle. This is an example of:

A. Symbolism

B. Irony

C. Allusion

Rhyme

End Rhyme: Rhyme between words that appear at

the end of two lines. Eye Rhyme: an imperfect rhyme that appears to

have identical vowel sounds from similarity of spelling (as move and love)

Internal Rhyme: rhyme between a word within a line and another either at the end of the same line or within another line

Half Rhyme: a rhyme between words when one of the words is altered to match the other

Rhyme

Examples: Half Rhyme: Feels shorter than a day

I first surmised the horses heads.

Were toward eternity. Eye Rhyme: Because of our love

The world will move. Internal Rhyme: One, two, buckle my shoe End Rhyme: Jack and Jill

Went up the hill.

Rhyme Scheme

The arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or a poem.

Bid me to weep, and I will weep,While I have eyes to see; And having none, yet I will keep A heart to weep for thee.

Sounds in orange are marked with the letter ASounds in purple are marked with the letter B

A

B

A

B

Rhythm

The pattern or flow of sound created by the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables

Stanza

A division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring pattern of meter and rhyme.

A Ballad of Baseball Burdens BY FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS

The burden of hard hitting. Slug away       Like Honus Wagner or like Tyrus Cobb.

Else fandom shouteth: “Who said you could play?       Back to the jasper league, you minor slob!”       Swat, hit, connect, line out, get on the job.

Else you shall feel the brunt of fandom’s ire       Biff, bang it, clout it, hit it on the knob—

This is the end of every fan’s desire.

The burden of good pitching. Curved or straight.       Or in or out, or haply up or down,

To puzzle him that standeth by the plate,       To lessen, so to speak, his bat-renoun:

      Like Christy Mathewson or Miner Brown, So pitch that every man can but admire

      And offer you the freedom of the town— This is the end of every fan’s desire.

Free Verse

Verse that does not follow a fixed metrical pattern.

Winter PoemNikki Giovanni

once a snowflake fellon my brow and i lovedit so much and i kissedit and it was happy and called its cousinsand brothers and a webof snow engulfed me theni reached to love them alland i squeezed them and they becamea spring rain and i stood perfectlystill and was a flower

Haiku

A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.

Sunlight burst through trees

a floating leaf glints golden

beauty, caught in space.

Half mocking the sea

the gulls dip within reach of

each exploding wave.

Mood

A prevailing emotional tone or general attitude of the poem.

Tone

A particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.

Work Cited Page

http://www.pppst.com/index.html http://images.search.yahoo.com http://www.dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/area/liter

ature/Terms/Imagery.html http://www.angelfire.com/jazz/afrikan/ng1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/

poem.html?id=175255http://www.numberone.com.tr/index.php?news=3690&print

Figurative Language Resources

Eye on Idioms (Online PPT) Paint by Idioms (Game) Alliteration or Simile? (Quiz) Similes and Metaphors (PPT) The Search for Similes, Metaphors, and Idioms

(PPT) Alliteration (PPT) Onomatopoeia (PPT) Personification (PPT) Hyperbole  (PPT) Idioms (PPT) Simile (PPT)

Teaching Similes and Metaphors Alliteration Lesson Plan and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/1allitera.htm Hyperbole- Lesson Plans and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/10lesson.htm Idiom Lesson Plan

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/6lesson.htm Imagery- Lesson Plans and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/imagery2.htm Lesson Plan for Puns

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/5lesson.htm Onomatopoeia- Lesson Plans and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/9lesson.htm Personification Lesson Plans and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/7lesson.htm Proverbs- Lesson Plans and Resources

http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/proverbs2.htm