Figurative Language

Language that involves the use of words and/or phrases that

describe one thing in terms of another and that is not meant to be understood on a literal level.

Figurative language always involves some sort of imaginative comparison between seemingly

unlike things.

A comparison of two things that have some quality in

common using like or as. In a simile, the comparison is

conveyed by means of the word like or as.

“O my Luve's like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in June;O my Luve's like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.”

A Red, Red Rose-Robert Burns

A comparison of two things that have some quality in

common without using like or as. Instead, it states that one thing actually is something

else.

In the poem “Peace” by Star Fields

“The wind is nowa roaring, smashing

monster of destruction,raking all man's work

from the valleys,from the vales,

and sends them spinning,broken flying- “

A figure of speech in which a nonhuman thing or quality is written about as if it were human.

In the line of the poem “To the Evening Star” by William Blake

“The lake; speak silence with thy glimmering eyes”

Somewhere I have never travelledby E. E. Cummings

 Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond

any experience, your eyes have their silence:in your most frail gesture are things which enclose

me,or which I cannot touch because they are too near

Your slightest look easily will unclose methough I have closed myself as fingers,

you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens

(touching skillfully, mysteriously)her first roseor if your wish be to close me, I and

my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,as when the heart of this flower imagines

the snow carefully everywhere descending;Nothing which we are to perceive in this world

equalsthe power of your intense fragility: whose texture

compels me with the color of its countries,rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closesand opens; only something in me understandsthe voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)

nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

Something in the world of the senses, including an action, that reveals or is a sign for something

else, often abstract or otherworldly. A rose, for example,

has long been considered a symbol of love and affection.

Fire and Ice By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desireI hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction iceIs also great

And would suffice.

A figure of speech in which a statement is exaggerated for

emphasis or for humorous effect. Writers often use hyperbole to

intensify a description or to emphasize the essential nature of

something.

"Auden on Endless LoveI'll love you, dear, I'll love you

Till China and Africa meet,And the river jumps over the mountain

And the salmon sing in the street,

I'll love you till the oceanIs folded and hung up to dry

And the seven stars go squawkingLike geese about the sky.“

- W.H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening

a PLAY on words that depends on a word

having two meanings.

In his book Ulysses, the great Irish writer James Joyce included the

brief poem:

If you see KayTell him he maySee you in tea

Tell him from me.

TO HIS MISTRESS GOING TO BED.by John Donne

 COME, madam, come, all rest my powers defy ; 

Until I labour, I in labour lie. The foe of times, having the foe in sight, 

Is tired with standing, though he never fight. Off with that girdle, like heaven's zone glittering, 

But a far fairer world encompassing. Unpin that spangled breast-plate, which you wear, That th' eyes of busy fools may be stopp'd there. 

Unlace yourself, for that harmonious chime  Tells me from you that now it is bed-time. 

Off with that happy busk, which I envy,That still can be, and still can stand so nigh. 

Your gown going off such beauteous state reveals, As when from flowery meads th' hill's shadow

steals. Off with your wiry coronet, and show 

The hairy diadems which on you do grow. Off with your hose and shoes ; then softly tread 

In this love's hallow'd temple, this soft bed. 

In such white robes heaven's angels used to be Revealed to men ; thou, angel, bring'st with thee A heaven-like Mahomet's paradise ; and though 

Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know By this these angels from an evil sprite ; 

Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.     License my roving hands, and let them go 

Before, behind, between, above, below. O, my America, my Newfoundland, 

My kingdom, safest when with one man mann'd, 

My mine of precious stones, my empery ; How am I blest in thus discovering thee ! 

To enter in these bonds, is to be free ; Then, where my hand is set, my soul shall be.    

Full nakedness !  All joys are due to thee ; As souls unbodied, bodies unclothed must be 

To taste whole joys.   Gems which you women use Are like Atlanta's ball cast in men's views ; That, when a fool's eye lighteth on a gem, 

His earthly soul might court that, not them. Like pictures, or like books' gay coverings made 

For laymen, are all women thus array'd. Themselves are only mystic books, which we 

—Whom their imputed grace will dignify—Must see reveal'd.   Then, since that I may know, 

As liberally as to thy midwife show Thyself ; cast all, yea, this white linen hence ; 

There is no penance due to innocence : To teach thee, I am naked first ; why then, 

What needst thou have more covering than a man?