Figurative Language Used in Poetry

Poets use figurative language to make their writing show the reader things in a different or interesting way. It heightens the senses and helps to get the poets thoughts across.

Here are seven types of figurative language used in poetry. 

• Simile: In a simile, the words “as” or “like” are used to compare two things.  
• Metaphor: Upon first hearing a metaphor, it sounds false or ridiculous. When you think about it, it makes sense because the two things being compared have a trait or two in common. It is used to make a point or give an opinion.
• Alliteration: This is a technique that repeats the first sound in several words. The words may be separated by a word or several words.  Tongue twisters use this technique.
• Personification: With personification, you give human characteristics to animals, ideas, or objects. This can add pleasure to the reading of a poem and make the reader take a different perspective on things. This literary device is used a lot in poetry.
• Onomatopoeia: This consists of using words that mimic sounds. The words can also sound like their meaning. This can add a fun element to poetry and can really help the reader experience what the poet experienced.
• Hyperbole: This is basically an extreme exaggeration. It makes a point and can sometimes be very funny.
• Imagery: This device appeals to the reader’s senses. It can describe objects, desires, or thoughts.  

Here are examples of the seven literary terms above.  

• Simile: As blind as a bat, as nutty as a fruitcake, as dry as a bone, they fought like cats and dogs, as easy as shooting fish in a barrel 
• Metaphor: You are my sunshine, she has a heart of stone, he kicked the bucket, time is money, life is a roller coaster
• Alliteration: “That's what made these three free fleas sneeze” (Dr. Seuss), Show Shawn Sharon's shabby shoes, Boil the butter and bring it by the bank, Kim comes to cut colorful kites
• Personification: The flowers begged for water, the sun played hide and seek with the clouds, lightning danced across the sky, the rain kissed my cheeks as it fell   
• Onomatopoeia: Bong, crunch, gobble, hum, meow, oink, ping, quack, smash, slurp, tick, tock, whoosh, zap
• Hyperbole: He is older than the hills, my backpack weighs a ton, it is raining cats and dogs, I have a million things to do today, her smile was a mile wide
• Imagery: The eerie silence was shattered by her scream, the word spread like leaves in a storm, the ants began their daily marching drill

Beginning the Poetry Unit

Introduction to Poetry

Related Poem Content Details

BY BILLY COLLINS

I ask them to take a poem 

and hold it up to the light 

like a color slide 

or press an ear against its hive. 

I say drop a mouse into a poem 

and watch him probe his way out, 

or walk inside the poem’s room 

and feel the walls for a light switch. 

I want them to waterski 

across the surface of a poem 

waving at the author’s name on the shore. 

But all they want to do 

is tie the poem to a chair with rope 

and torture a confession out of it. 

They begin beating it with a hose 

to find out what it really means. 

Billy Collins, “Introduction to Poetry” from The Apple that Astonished Paris. Copyright � 1988, 1996 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Arkansas Press.

Source: The Apple that Astonished Paris (1996)

Feedback for First Drafts of Creative Projects

Email the presenters and cc Ms. Guarino with the following information:

1. What did you like best about the project so far?

2. Note anything that was confusing to you or needed to be explained more clearly.

3. How do you think the project can be improved? Be specific.

4. Rank the work on a scale of 0-5, 5 being the highest.

5. Explain the reasons behind your ranking in #4.

Creative Project for Pobby and Dingan

To conclude our reading of Pobby and Dingan, I would like you to complete a creative project instead of a formal essay. I am going to give you a lot of freedom in what kind of project you choose. Choose to do something that will be interesting to you, that will capitalize on your strengths, and that will allow you to learn something. The amount of work you put into the project should be the equivalent of the amount of work you would do to complete a 5-page literary analysis essay. You can work alone or with a group, but if you work in a group, your project should reflect the amount of time all of you put into it together.

Here is a website that gives lots of examples of creative projects. Use this list to devise one of your own that either is the same/similar to one here or combines more than one idea:

https://www.csustan.edu/sites/default/files/TeacherEd/FacultyStaff/betts/Handouts/PDFs/101CreatLitProj.pdf

You will need to submit a proposal (one per each person in the group) that says exactly what you plan to do, how you will do it, why, and what you hope to learn from it. Also discuss the estimated amount of time you think it will take and how you will break down the time into a project noting the days and times you will complete each part of the project. If you are working in a group, please specify exactly who will do what and when.

The proposal is a formal writing assignment, so make sure it is clear, detailed, and grammatically correct. Get started on the proposal soon -- don't wait until the last minute!

Quiz Prep for Chapters 8-12

Use these questions to prepare for the quiz. Be specific and always think about what quotes you can use to back up your ideas.

1. Why do you think that Ashmol decides to search for Pobby and Dingan for real instead of just pretending?

2. What connection does Asmol make between the land covered with seawater and Pobby and Dingan? Why is that important to the story?

 3. What does Ashmol find inside their abandoned mine? Why does he believe that Pobby and Dingan are really there?

4. Why do you think Ashmol promises not to use the opal to get money? Do you agree with this decision?

5. In the very end of the novel, Ashmol talks about what it’s like to “believe in something which is hard to see. Or to keep looking for something that’s totally hard to find.” Discuss the importance of imagination and dreams in this novel. Why are they so important even if they cannot be seen. Consider what dreams Rex, the father, and Annie, the mother, have in the story. Consider, also, the dream that Ashmol has. How do those "unseen" dreams connect to Kellyanne's belief in Pobby and Dingan?

Please bring in to the quiz one index card with notes and quotes on it. It will be handed in as part of the quiz.

Vocabulary for Pobby and Dingan

claim
wobbling
startled
figment
rummaged
ute
crackpot
Mello Yello
mates
opal
fairdinkum
imaginary
grub
fossilized
mammoth


For each word, write the sentence that it comes from, the part of speech, and the meaning as it is used in the sentence.

Essay Rubric

Essay Rubric


1. Original, Creative Title (5 points)

2. Introduction with Hook and Thesis (10 points)

3. Strong, Analytical Thesis (10 points)

4. Organized Body Paragraphs (10 points)

5. Strong Topic and Ending Sentences (10 points)

6. Analysis (10 points)

7. Interesting Ideas

8. Conclusion that Recaps and Leaves Something to Think About (10 points)

9. Clarity of Ideas (10 points)

10. Grammar and Sentence Correctness (10 points)

11. Correct Citations and MLA format (5 points)


Points will also be deducted for lateness and not meeting the word count.