Reviewer in English

Poetry is a type of literature, or artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader's
imagination or emotions. The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging
language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Some poems, such as nursery rhymes,
are simple and humorous.
Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and allusions go beyond the

literal meanings of the words to give readers new insights. On the other hand,
alliterations, imageries, or onomatopoeias are figurative devices that appeal to
the senses of the readers.
Figurative language
Figurative language can appear in multiple forms with the use of different
literary and rhetorical devices. According to Merriam Webster’s Encyclopedia,
the definition of figurative language has five different forms:
1. Understatement or Emphasis
2. Relationship or Resemblance
3. Figures of Sound
4. Errors and
5. Verbal Games
Types of Figurative Language

The term figurative language covers a wide range of literary devices and
techniques, a few of which include:
 Simile
 Metaphor
 Personification
 Onomatopoeia
 Oxymoron
 Hyperbole
 Allusion
 Idiom
 Imagery
 Symbolism
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Metonymy
 Synecdoche
 Irony
Short Examples of Figurative Language
Similes
 His friend is as black as coal.

 He has learned gymnastics, and is as agile as a monkey.
 When attacked in his home, he will fight like a caged tiger.
 Can you dance like a monkey?
 Even when he was told everything, he was acting like a donkey.
Metaphor
 My friend is a Shakespeare when in English class.

 He was a roaring lion in anger, though now he is silent.
 They seem like jackals when running in fear.
 Kisses are roses in the spring.
 This world is a sea of anonymous faces.
Images
 The house stood half-demolished and abandoned.

 He left with his haunted and spell-bound face.
 He did not like the odorless and colorless shape of water.
 His friend was looking at spooky glissando twangs.
 Zigzag fissures in the land made him look for snakes.
Assonance
 The light on the site did not let him see the sight.
 He heard the sound of the fire, like wire striking the air.
 This artificial stream is going to flow to the downtown of the town.
 Please set the kite right.
 Might of the fright seems greater than the actual fear.
Consonance
 He lets the pink ball fall with a tall man.

 They have not learned how to catch the cat.
 Get a seat with a treat in our local hall.
 Calling the cow an ox is like putting the cart before the horse.
 He saw the pink kite floating past the tall trees.
Paradox
 He is dying with his untrustworthy belief.

 Sharply blunt razor cannot do anything to you.
 Kindly cruel treatment made him flabbergasted.
 Please, watch with closed eyes and you will see the heaven.
 Creatively dull person cannot do anything in his life.
Metonymy
 The Pentagon is located in Washington in the United States.

 The Hollywood is a home of English movies.
 10 Downing Street is located in London.
 Buckingham Palace is world’s oldest symbol of democracy.
 The White House.
Synecdoche
 He does not know how to behave with the special people.

 He is looking at his own grey hair and his agility.
 They saw a fleet of fifty.
 At this time, he owns nine head of cattle.
 The new generation is addicted to the use of plastic money.
Examples of Figurative Language from Literature

Example #1: The Base Stealer (By Robert Francis)
Simile
Poised between going on and back, pulled

Both ways taut like a tight-rope walker,
Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball,

Or a kid skipping rope, come on, come on! …
Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,

He’s only flirting, crowd him, crowd him,
The similes and word choice of this poem makes it a masterpiece. The poet
use similes between the lines to depict his scattered thoughts before taking
action, and makes comparison as, “like a tight-rope,” “like a dropped ball,” and
“hovers like an ecstatic bird.”
Example #2: I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings (By Maya Angelou)
Metaphor
But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill …
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The entire poem is rich with metaphor as a bird in a cage represents a group
of people who are oppressed and cannot get freedom. The cage represents
physical barriers, fear, addiction, or society; while the song of the bird
represents true self yearning for something greater in life.
Example #3: She Sweeps with Many-Colored Brooms (By Emily Dickinson)
Personification
She sweeps with many-colored Brooms

And leaves the Shreds behind
Oh Housewife in the Evening West
Come back, and dust the Pond!
Dickinson uses personification of a housewife to describe the sunset in the

very first line of this poem. She is using a sweeping housewife who does her
daily work, likewise the rays of the setting sun sweep away beneath the
horizon.
Example #4: The Raven (By Edgar Allen Poe)

Alliteration
Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary;

rare and radiant maiden;
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain …
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Poe uses alliteration by repeating the /w/ sound to emphasize the weariness
of the narrator, and then /r/ and /s/ sounds in the second and third lines
respectively. In the last two lines, the /d/ sound highlights the narrator’s
hopelessness.
Example #5: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (By Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Symbolism
Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks

Had I from old and young !
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung.
In these lines, the albatross symbolizes a big mistake, or a burden of sin, just
like the cross on which Christ was crucified. Therefore, all people on the ship
agreed to slay that bird.
Example #6: The Bluest Eyes (By Toni Morrison)

Personification, Consonance, and Simile
She ran down the street, the green knee socks making her legs look like wild
dandelion of stems that had somehow lost their heads. The weight of her
remark stunned us.
This excerpt uses different devices that make language figurative. There is a
good use of simile, “legs look like wild dandelion;” and personification, “lost
their heads;” and use of consonance in “stunned us,” where the /s/ is a
consonant sound.
Example #7: The Week of Diana (By Maya Angelou)

Metaphor, Consonance, Personification
“The dark lantern of world sadness has cast its shadow upon the land.
We stumble into our misery on leaden feet.”
In just these two lines, Maya Angelou has used a metaphor of the dark
lantern, consonance of the /s/ sounds, and personification of misery.
Example #8: The Negro Speaks of River (By Langston Hughes)

Consonance, Simile
“I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood
in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”
This prince of the Harlem Renaissance has beautifully used a different type of
consonance with the /l/ sound and a simile of “my soul.”
Example #9: Musée des Beaux Arts (By W. H. Auden)

Personification, Consonance
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy W. H. Auden life and the torturer’s
horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
W. H. Auden has used a personification of the “dreadful martyrdom,” and

consonances of “some untidy spot,” with the /s/ sound, and “dogs go on with
their doggy life,” with the /d/ and /g/ sounds.
Function of Figurative Language

The primary function of figurative language is to force readers to imagine what
a writer wants to express. Figurative language is not meant to convey literal
meanings, and often it compares one concept with another in order to make
the first concept easier to understand. However, it links the two ideas or
concepts with the goal of influencing the audience to understand the link, even
if it does not exist.
Term Definition Example
The repetition of usually

The wild and woolly walrus
initial consonant sounds in
Alliteration waits and wonders when
two or more neighboring
we’ll walk by
words or syllables
Assonance A resemblance of sound in holy & stony

words or syllables and
Fleet feet sweep by
sleeping geese
A word or phrase that has

Cliche become overly familiar or No pain, no gain
commonplace
Big exaggeration, usually

Hyperbole mile-high ice-cream cones
with humor
The language peculiar to a She sings at the top of her

Idiom
group of people lungs
Comparing two things by

using one kind of object or
Metaphor using in place of another to Her hair was silk
suggest the likeness
between them
Naming a thing or an action

Onomatopoeia by imitating the sound buzz, hiss, roar, woof
associated with it
Giving something human The stuffed bear smiled as

Personification
qualities the little boy hugged him
close
A figure of speech
comparing two unlike things The sun is like a yellow ball
Simile
that is often introduced by of fire in the sky
like or as

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Poetry is a type of literature, or artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader's

Figures of speech such as metaphors, similes, and allusions go beyond the

Types of Figurative Language

 His friend is as black as coal.

 My friend is a Shakespeare when in English class.

 The house stood half-demolished and abandoned.

 He lets the pink ball fall with a tall man.

 He is dying with his untrustworthy belief.

 The Pentagon is located in Washington in the United States.

 He does not know how to behave with the special people.

Examples of Figurative Language from Literature

Poised between going on and back, pulled

Now bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball,

Taunts them, hovers like an ecstatic bird,

But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

She sweeps with many-colored Brooms

Dickinson uses personification of a housewife to describe the sunset in the

Example #4: The Raven (By Edgar Allen Poe)

Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary;

Ah ! well a-day ! what evil looks

Example #6: The Bluest Eyes (By Toni Morrison)

Example #7: The Week of Diana (By Maya Angelou)

Example #8: The Negro Speaks of River (By Langston Hughes)

“I’ve known rivers:

Example #9: Musée des Beaux Arts (By W. H. Auden)

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

W. H. Auden has used a personification of the “dreadful martyrdom,” and

Function of Figurative Language

Term Definition Example

The repetition of usually

Assonance A resemblance of sound in holy & stony

A word or phrase that has

Big exaggeration, usually

The language peculiar to a She sings at the top of her

Comparing two things by

Naming a thing or an action

Giving something human The stuffed bear smiled as

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