Figurative LanguageFigurative LanguageFigurative LanguageFigurative Language

Vocabulary List 1Vocabulary List 1

Alliteration

The repetition of initial sounds in successive or closely associated words

Alliteration• Apt alliteration’s artful aid is often an

occasional element in prose.• “The fair breeze blew, the white foam

flew, the furrow followed free.” – Coleridge

• “The moan of doves in immemorial elms, and murmuring of innumerable bees.” – Tennyson

ConceitAn outlandish comparison/metaphor

(brief metaphor or entire poem)• Petrarchan: Subject is compared

extensively/elaborately to an object

• Metaphysical: Complex, startling, highly intellectual

Conceit• Robert Burns compares his love to a

rose• Shakespeare compares someone to a

summer’s day• Donne compares his relationship to a

woman with the woman’s relationship to a flea

• Donne compares his relationship with a woman to a compass

Extended metaphor

A metaphor that runs throughout a poem

Extended MetaphorThe bonsai tree

in the attractive potcould have grown eighty feet tall

on the side of a mountaintill split by lightning.

But a gardenercarefully pruned it.

It is nine inches high.Every day as he

whittles back the branchesthe gardener croons,

It is your natureto be small and cozy,domestic and weak;how lucky, little tree,

to have a pot to grow in.With living creatures

one must begin very earlyto dwarf their growth:

the bound feet,the crippled brain,the hair in curlers,

the hands youlove to touch.

Figurative language

Writing that embodies one or more figures of speech

Figures of speech

Intentional departure from the normal meaning of

words in order to achieve a certain effect

Imagery

Sensory language

Imagery• “Unloved, that beech will gather

brown/ and many a rose carnation feed/ with summer spice the humming air.” – Tennyson

• “A sea the purple of the peacock’s neck is/paled to greenish azure.” – Moore

A note on writing about imagery

• Never just say, “The writer uses imagery.” Describe the imagery - biblical, nautical, seasonal, animal, visual, etc.

• For example, “In the poem “Living in Sin,” Adrienne Rich uses domestic imagery…”

• If you say, “The author uses imagery to paint a picture in the reader’s mind,” I will stuff you and sell you on Ebay.

Metaphor

The comparison of one thing to another without the use

of like  or as

Metaphor“Hope is the thing with feathers/ that

perches in the soul.” – Dickinson• “It is the east and Juliet is the sun.”

– Shakespeare• It’s raining cats and dogs• That’s my old flame

Metonymy

One word or phrase being substituted for another closely related object

MetonymyMilton! thou should'st be living at this hour:

England hath need of thee: she is a fenOf stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,

Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dowerOf inward happiness. We are selfish men;

Oh! raise us up, return to us again;

• Wordsworth uses an alter to stand for religion, a sword to

stand for the military, and a pen to stand for literature

Onomatopoeia

The use of words whose pronunciation suggests its

meaning

Onomatopoeia• Bang• Hiss• Crash• Buzz

PersonificationGiving human qualities to

non-human things•Anthropomorphism –

specifically referring to giving animals human qualities

Personification• “Poetic justice with her lifted scale”

– Pope• “Full many a glorious morning I

have seen/flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eyes/kissing with golden face the meadows green.”

- Shakespeare

Simile

A direct comparison of two things using like or as

Simile

• “My love is like a red, red rose” – Burns• “A poem should be palpable and

mute as a globed fruit.” – MacLeish

Symbolism

Using something to signify or represent something else

Symbolism

• Lion – bravery• Circle – everlasting• Water – rebirth

Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part

Synecdoche

• “With all its muddy feet that press the coffee stands” - Eliot

• Gray beard – old man• Wheels – a car• Threads - clothing

Synesthesia

Describing one sense in terms of another

Synesthesia

• “Tasting of flora and the country green” – Keats

• “With blue uncertain stumbling buzz” - Dickinson