Figurative Language: Imagery, Simile, Metaphor, Paradox,

Personification and HyperboleJ. Oliveira

Figurative Language

• Language used imaginatively rather than literally

• Contains one or more figures of speech: simile, metaphor, personification, paradox

Imagery -A word or phrase that appeals to one of the five senses

• Examples:

• Look around leaves are brown and the sky is a hazy shade of winter.. Look around grass is high, fields are ripe - Simon and Garfunkel

• I’ve got cute face, chubby waist, thick legs in shape, rump shakin’ both ways,make you do a double-take – Missy Elliot

• Hustlers shootin 8 ball, throwing darts at the wall, feeling damn near 10 feet tall – Trace Adkins

Simile-Comparison between 2 unlike things using “like” or “as”

• Examples:• I keep her running back and forth like a

soccer team – Lil’ Wayne• Did you stand too close to the fire; Like a

liar looking for forgiveness from a stone? – Green Day

• You’re on my heart just like a tattoo – Jordin Sparks

• I hear my conscience call, Saying me I need a girl who’s as sweet as a dove- LL Cool J

Metaphor• Implied comparison between 2 unlike

things; does not use “like” or “as”

• Extended metaphor- comparison extends throughout poem or multiple lines

Examples

• Revolutionaries wait for my head on a silver plate; Just a puppet on a lonely string – Coldplay

• Moving on the floor now babe you’re a bird of paradise – Duran Duran

• Life is a highway, I wanna drive it all night long- Rascall Flatts

• I’m a cowboy on the steel horse I ride, I’m wanted dead or alive – Bon Jovi

Hyperbole- Exaggeration

• Examples:

• Your momma’s so big that when she wears yellow people put on their sunglasses

• I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more just to be the man who 1000 miles to fall down at your door! –

• That’ll be the day when you say… That’ll be the day when I die – Buddy Holly

Personification- Giving human characteristics to something that is not human

• Examples:• The flowers danced gently in the wind.• Pulverize the Eiffel Towers, who criticize your

government – Green Day• The sun’s on my side, take me for a ride –

Natasha Bedingfield• The wind cries Mary – Jimi Hendrix• So bright the sun is ashamed to rise and be in

love with all these vampires – My Chemical Romance

Paradox- A statement, an idea, or a situation that seems contradictory but actually

expresses a truthThe more things change, the more they stay

the same.

I hate how much I love you boy; I can’t stand how much I need you boy, but I just can’t let you go, And I hate that I love you so! - Rihanna