Good writers use figurative language to create deeper meanings for the reader.

Georgia Heard said, “One of poetry’s most wonderful features is that it can get beneath the surface of things and explore them, not as mere objects, but as remarkable phenomena with lively personalities of their own.”

Today we will explore one way authors used figurative language by giving a personality to inanimate objects.

Let’s read some poems together. When you read observe how the poet talks about two things at the same time.

Try to guess the two items the poet is referring to.

Hint: they are all objects you are familiar with.

What object is Valerie Worth talking about?

Closed, it sleeps on its sideQuietly,the SilverImage Of some Small fish;

Opened, it snapsIts tail out Like a thinShrimp, and looks At the sharpPoint with aSurprised eye

What is the first image that comes to mind when you read this poem?

It is a Safety Pin.

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What object is Philip Dance writing about?

The odd, friendless boy raised by four aunts.

What images come to mind when you read this poem?

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It is a thumb.

What object is Jed Chambers referring to?

Seeming docile,the battered creature is motionless until summoned,Then it raises a serpentine neck,top-heavy with its metallic head,

and, spying an opening in the flank of the other beast------- it charges. Guided by a human master, it smashes into a larger creature.

Once secure, it fills the beast’s organs with poison; the acrid odor of the liquid shimmers in the air. When finished, it withdraws it head and rests.

What image came to you when you read this poem?

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It is a gas pump.

One way to use figurative language is by giving life to an inanimate object.