Figurative Language

Figurative Language:

• Is language or speech that contains images and is NOT intended to be interpreted in a literal sense

• Describes something through unusual comparison for effect, interest, and to make things more clear

• The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor and alliteration

Figures of Speech:

Imagery: language that appeals to the senses. Descriptions of people, or objects stated in terms of our senses.

Simile: a direct comparison between two unlike things, using the words like or as. Example: The muscles on his brawny arms are strong as iron bands.

Figures of Speech:

Metaphor: an implied comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of the verb “to be”. The comparison does NOT use like or as. Example: The road was a ribbon of moonlight.

Alliteration: repeated consonant sounds that occur at the beginning of words. It is used to create melody, establish mood, call attention to important words, and point out similarities and contrasts. Example: wide-eyed and wondering while we wait for others to wake

Figures of Speech:

Personification: gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object, or an idea. Used to communicate a certain feeling or attitude, or to control the way a reader perceives it.Example: sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.

Onomatopoeia: the use of words to mimic soundsExample: Snap! Crackle! Pop!

Figures of Speech:

Hyperbole: An exaggerated statement used to enhance effectExample: She’s said so on several million occasions

Idioms: language specific expressions Example: A little bird to me

Achilles' HeelJack of all trades Tables are turned Take your breath away

Figures of Speech:

Paradox: a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements, but may actually be true. Example: green is gold

Men work together whether they work together or apart

Irony: an expression or situation used in opposition to what one would expect Example: the fire station burned down

Rhyme:

• Refers to the repetition of similar sounds occurring at regular intervals Example: Hey, diddle, diddle; The cat and the fiddle….

• Five kinds of rhyme:

1. End Rhyme: the duplication of sounds that takes place at the end of lines Example: Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn, The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn

2. Rhyme: Rhyme that occurs within a single line of poetry

Example: Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep

Rhyme cont.3. Forced Rhyme: A rhyme that is created by

mispronouncing words, or inventing words to make the rhyme work. Example: Farewell, Farewell, you old rhinoceros

I’ll stare at something less prepocerous

4. Imperfect Rhyme: a rhyme between a stressed and unstressed syllable Example: wing and caring

5. Perfect Rhyme: final accented vowels of rhyming words are identicalExample: sight and flight, sadness and madness

Rhyme Scheme:

• The pattern of rhymed words• Stanzas are often linked by their rhyme

scheme• Written out in letter form

Example: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again!

Rhythm: a pattern in the beat of stresses in the stream of sound

Tone: the expression of a literary speaker’s attitude

Example: the tone can be happy, sad, reflective, etc.

Couplet: a pair of rhymed lines