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Whenever you describe something by comparing it with something else, you are using figurative language. Figurative language is any language that goes beyond the literal meaning of words in order to furnish new effects or fresh insights into an idea or a subject. The most common figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and alliteration. Figurative language is used in poetry to compare two things that are usually not thought of as being alike.
I’ve told you a million times not to leave the dirty glass on the table.
The exaggeration in the number of times.
In your packets, write two more hyperbole. Have your partner check them.
Introduction to Poetry
Poetry is the most misunderstood form of writing. It is also arguably the purest form of writing. Poetry is a sense of the beautiful; characterized by a love of beauty and expressing this through words. It is art. Like art it is very difficult to define because it is an expression of what the poet thinks and feels and may take any form the poet chooses for this expression. Poetry is not easily defined. Often it takes the form of verse, but not all poetry has this structure. Poetry is a creative use of words which, like all art, is intended to stir an emotion in the audience. Poetry generally has some structure that separates it from prose.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between two unlike things that actually have something importay. Grandpa was a mule. Tom is a rock.
A simile is a figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as.
The clouds looked like cotton candy. Grandpa was as stubborn as a mule Tom's head is as hard as a rock.
Dust of Snow Poems of more than one stanza often repeat the same rhyme scheme in each stanza. by Robert Frost A B A B C D C D The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And save some part Of a day I had rued.
Fog The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city SEE, HEAR SEE
on silent haunches and then moves HEAR, SEE, on. FEEL Carl Sandburg
Whose woods / these are / I think /I know
Rhyme is when the endings of the words sound the same. Read the poem with me out loud. Dust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And save some part Of a day I had rued.
A day late and a dollar short. This idiom means it is too little, too late.
Write two more examples of idioms to share with the class.
The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to is called an alliteration. It is a word or a grouping of words that imitates the sound it is describing, such as animal noises like "oink" or "meow", or suggesting its source object (these are the more important ones), such as "boom", "click", "bunk", "clang", "buzz", or "bang".
The basic unit of poetry is the line. It serves the same function as the sentence in prose, although most poetry maintains the use of grammar within the structure of the poem. Most poems have a structure in which each line contains a set amount of syllables; this is called meter. Lines are also often grouped into stanzas. The stanza in poetry is equivalent or equal to the paragraph in prose. Often the lines in a stanza will have a specific rhyme scheme. Some of the more common stanzas are:
An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words. This can make idioms hard for students to understand.
Now do the poem in your packet.
An exaggerated statement used to heighten effect is a hyperbole. It is not used to mislead the reader, but to emphasize a point.
They are fluffy. They are stubborn. They are hard.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables, as in "on scrolls of silver snowy sentences" (Hart Crane). Modern alliteration is predominantly consonantal. To find an alliteration, you must look the repetitions of the same consonant sound through out a line. _ Silvery _ snowflakes fall _ silently _ Softly _ sheathing all with moonlight Until _ sunrise _ slowly _ shows _ Snow _ softening _ swiftly.