Figurative language in poetry

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4,5

Figurative language in poetry

Objectives:

I know different figurative language devices

I can identify figurative language in a poem

“Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. / It’s had tacks in it, / And splinters, / And boards torn up.” (Langston Hughes)

1. Metaphor
2. simile
3. hyperbole
4. personification

“The prisoner would not answer, he only lay with wide, dark, bright, eyes.” (DH Lawrence)

1. alliteration
2. simile
3. oxymoron
4. hyperbole

“Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary.” (Edgar Allan Poe)

1. simile
2. hyperbole
3. alliteration
4. metaphor

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.” (Shakespeare)

1. hyperbole
2. personification
3. simile
4. metaphor

“Oh, the bells, bells, bells!…/ How they clang, and clash, and roar!” (Edgar Allan Poe)

1. onomatopoeia
2. hyperbole
3. personification
4. simile

“Because I could not stop for Death, / He kindly stopped for me; / The carriage held but just
ourselves / And Immortality.” (Emily Dickinson)

1. onomatopoeia
2. hyperbole
3. oxymoron
4. personification

“All things counter, original, spare, strange; / Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) / With swift,slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim.” (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

1. alliteration
2. hyperbole
3. oxymoron
4. personification

“Just like moons and like suns, / With the certainty of tides, / Just like hopes springing high, /
Still I'll rise.” (Maya Angelou)

1. simile
2. hyperbole
3. metaphor
4. alliteration

“Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow.” (Shakespeare)

1. simile
2. personification
3. oxymoron
4. alliteration

“Who has seen the wind? / Neither you nor I: / But when the trees bow down their heads, /
The wind is passing by.” (Christina Rosetti)

1. simile
2. personification
3. oximoron
4. alliteration