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Figurative Language. Compiled by : Valentina Widya. Figurative Language. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. We don’t actually think that you have chicken eggs that you expect to hatch. That is the literal meaning of the expression.
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Figurative Language Compiled by : Valentina Widya
Figurative Language • Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. • We don’t actually think that you have chicken eggs that you expect to hatch. That is the literal meaning of the expression. • Rather, it is a figure of speech that indicates that you should not count on an outcome before it happens.
Figures of Speech • Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another. • (Robert Frost) • Figures of speech allow us to convey meaning in fresh, vivid, and powerful ways impossible through direct expression.
Figures of Speech • Be Careful! • Using a figure of speech doesn’t guarantee good writing. • “Lear should know that once he made his bed he was going to have to lay in it.” • Trite, hackneyed, banal • “Hamlet feels like a Tasmanian when confronted by a wolf.” • What in the world does that mean?
Simile Is a comparison using LIKE or AS. It’s usually compares two dissimilar object. It’s explicit comparison Example: • SHE IS AS SHARP AS A PENCIL. • You're like coming home; You're like coming home, all right.”
Simile • Another example: • He’s smart as a whip. • He eats like a horse. • She was slower than molasses in January. • His singing resembled the sound of a cat being killed. • The speed of her car seems painteresque.
Metaphor States that one thing is something else. It is a comparison, but it does NOT use like or as to make comparison. It’s implicit comparison Example: Her hair is silk “You're a midsummer's dream under a star-soaked sky.”
Metaphor • Examples: • She’s a horse. • She has a whip smart mind. • He screeched and screamed his way through the aria. • The car pounced across the road.
Symbolism Is a visible object or action that suggest some further meaning in addition to itself. Symbol is something tangible, something that you can touch with your hand. Conventional symbol have a customary effect on us Example : cross = Christianity rose = love
Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.
Personification • What is it? • Personification gives human qualities to objects, plants, or animals. • What does it look like? • The microwave oven told me my popcorn was ready. • Do microwave ovens think & talk? • How did the microwave tell you that the popcorn was ready? • Why is this a good example of personification? HEY YOU! Your popcorn is ready!
Examples of personification The strawberry seemed to sing, "Eat me first!" The rain kissed my cheeks as it fell. The daffodils nodded their yellow heads. The car engine coughed and sputtered.
Classic Poetry Using Personification • Two Sunflowers Move in the Yellow Room. • "Ah, William, we're weary of weather,"said the sunflowers, shining with dew."Our traveling habits have tired us.Can you give us a room with a view?" • They arranged themselves at the windowand counted the steps of the sun,and they both took root in the carpetwhere the topaz tortoises run. By William Blake(1757-1827)
Our journey had advanced Our journey had advanced—Our feet were almost comeTo that odd Fork in Being's Road—Eternity—by Term—Our pace took sudden awe—Our feet—reluctant—led—Before—were Cities—but Between—The Forest of the Dead—Retreat—was out of Hope—Behind—a Sealed Route—Eternity's White Flag—Before—And God—at every Gate— Emily Dickinson
Analyzing Figurative Language • It’s not enough to be able to identify what a poet or writer is doing. • What use is being made of this expression? • How does it contribute to the experience of the poem?
Analyzing Figurative Language • “I noticed them sitting there | as orderly as frozen fish | in a package.” • Conveys the absence of life through the simile comparing the students to dead fish. • Frozen similarly allows us to imagine a stillness and lack of movement. • Frozen fish also have a feeling of being mass produced, they aren’t unique or special. • This allows us to characterize both the audience being described and the speaker. The audience seems still, lifeless, and indistinctive. The speaker seems a bit judgmental.
Analyzing Figurative Language • “I heard the sounds | of fish in an aquarium” • Compares the students to interesting, lively fish in a contained environment. • An aquarium is typically a thing of beauty that an observer will admire. • Maintains the idea that the audience isn’t free to swim away to different ideas, through the use of the aquarium. He recognizes that this is still an artificial world. • Reflects the change on the part of the speaker as he recognizes the extraordinary nature of his audience. They thrive in the atmosphere of his poetry and become a thing wonderful to behold.
