Download Figurative Language

An "image” is “a word or sequence of words
that refers to any sensory experience”
(Kennedy and Gioia 741).
What are your five senses? Sight, Hearing,
Touch, Taste, and Smell
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An image conveys a sense perception , i.e., a
visual picture, a sound, a feeling of touch, a
taste, or an odor
Imagery = a noun used to refer to a set of
related images in poem or the totality of
images in a poem:
Shelley uses nature imagery in his poem “To
Autumn.”
Figurative language uses figures of speech
to convey unique images and create some
sort of special effect or impression.
A “figure of speech” is an intentional
deviation from the ordinary usage of
language.
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Poets often create images or enhance
meaning by comparing one thing to another
for special effect.
A most important figure of speech is the
Metaphor
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The term metaphor has two meanings, a
broad, more general meaning and a
concise, specific meaning.
◦ All figures of speech which use association,
comparison, or resemblance can generally be
called types of metaphor, or metaphorical.
◦ One specific figure of speech which compares
two things by saying that one IS the other is
called a metaphor.
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A simile is a type of metaphor, a figure in
which an explicit comparison is made using
the comparative words like, as, resembles,
than. Similes are easy to spot.
(X is like Y: X is compared to Y in order to illustrate X
more fancifully, poetically, or effectively. But Y is not
a literal representation of X, not actual.)
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The team’s center looked like a skyscraper.
My love is like a red, red rose.
We were as quiet as frightened mice.
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Kennedy and Gioia offer a good list of ways to
make a simile:
My love is like a red, red rose.
My love resembles a rose.
My love is redder than a rose.
She came out smelling like a rose! (767)
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A metaphor also compares, but a
metaphor is a bit more sophisticated
than a simile.
For one thing, in a metaphor, the words
like or as are missing. So readers have
to recognize the comparison on their
own without those easy words which help
us to spot a simile so quickly.
In a metaphor, a poet writes that X is Y.
Readers understand that we are not to take
the comparison literally, but that the
metaphor helps us to see X in a new way.
My brother is a prince.
Razorback Stadium was a slaughterhouse.
Richard was a lion in the fight.
Her eyes are dark emeralds. Her teeth are pearls.
But Avoid Mixed Metaphors (combining two or more
incompatible images in a single figure of speech):
Management extended an olive branch in an attempt
to break some of the ice between the company and
the workers.
Kennedy and Gioia offer a kind of metaphor (767)
lacking the actual “to be” verb (is, am, are, was,
were and other such forms of the verb “to be”)
called
an
Implied Metaphor
What is implied here about the speaker’s love?
 Oh, my love has petals and sharp thorns.
 Oh, I placed my love into a long-stemmed vase
And I bandaged my bleeding thumb.
And here, what is implied about the city and the
subway?
 The subway coursed through the arteries of the
city.
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This kind of metaphor may run through an entire
work. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for
example, the farm is compared to a nation, with
different possible forms of goverance. This
comparison extends throughout the novel.
Sometimes a poet will use an extended metaphor
throughout a poem rather than simply as one
single figure of speech in a poem.
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A dead metaphor has been so used and overused
that it has lost its power to surprise, delight, or
effectively compare.
A cliché is a dead metaphor, a phrase so often
repeated that it no longer has force:
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He hit the nail on the head.
She was cool as a cucumber.
Jump out of the frying pan and into the fire.
This powerpoint show is crystal clear.
◦ Avoid the use of clichés in your own writing!
Another kind of comparison is called
personification. Here, animals, elements of
nature, and abstract ideas are given human
qualities.
John Milton calls time “the subtle thief of youth” (599).
Homer refers to “the rosy fingers of dawn” (599).
Other examples of personification
◦ The stars smiled down on us.
– An angry wind slashed its way across the island.
The Ode:
This type of poem dates back to Ancient Greece
It’s a long, lyric poem usually addressed to a particular person or thing.
It generally deals with one main idea and can be written as a song of
praise or to celebrate an experience, thing or a person.
The Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Keats and Shelley used this form
of poetry. Pablo Neruda is a famous Latin American poet well-known
for his odes.
Ode to a Fountain Pen:
“Oh beloved pen of
midnight black ink,
How I love to roll
you down my nose.”
Ode to My Thumb:
“Delicious appendage on my
left hand. You are my favorite
finger, my most tasty dessert.”
Ode to Dancing:
“’Kick up your heels
Wave your hands in the air.
There’s nothing as joyful as
Dancing in pairs!”
Ode to My Teeth:
Little white molars
Striped with braces
Help me make
amusing faces