APPRAISING THE FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE OF LYRIC POETRY: AN

INTERVENTION FOR IMPROVED COMPETENCES OF PUPILS OF SAN JOSE

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

ROLDAN I. ESPIELAGO

San Jose Elementary School

ABSTRACT

The use of words could be literal on figurative or both that would create ambiguity of

meaning. Literal words would mean exactly as it meant. Figurative words or phrases

described one thing in terms of another and meant to be taken or understood in a figurative

level.

This Action Research was designed to demonstrate how figurative words and phrases

would be well understood through the use of picturesque words of lyric poetry. In specific,

the figures of speech in lyric poetry that showed how the poem mean.

Thus, the Action Research was designed to assess levels of competences through

administering controlled test and questionnaire. Five participants were selected through

purposive sampling to achieve a targeted sampling.

The outcomes of the Action Research showed that participants greatly improved

understanding, after five weeks of intervention. Recognition and appraisal of the figure of

speech of figure poetry taken in the intervention showed improvement. Thus, the study

concluded that recognition and appraisal of phrases and word use of figurative speech was

achieved after reading and appreciating some lyric poetry, and after understanding words of
figurative level during the intervention. English teachers should implement the same,

recognizing words of figure of speech and appreciating words of figurative meaning.

 SHORT DESRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH

The study demonstrated the level of recognizing and appraisal of words and

phrases of lyric poetry. In specific, the research examined closely the level of competences

the participants acquired through recognition figurative speech, and appraisal of words and

phrases of figurative meaning. Action Research is the approach used to assess output level of

competences. Five participants were selected through purposive sampling, and through

controlled test and questionnaire.

 CHAPTER I

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

INTRODUCTION

The literary genre, poetry is remarkable in the use of few words to mean a lot. In few

words, a ________ of ideas is conveyed. The ability of the poem to express ideas in

___manner may have something to do with the origin of the word poet from the Latin Poets,

and the Greek Poets, meaning makes, creator or composer (Abad, 1998). And the principle

“less is more”, becomes evident in a poem as in lyric poetry.

This principle is well demonstrated in lyric poetry that use words and phrases that

express the thoughts and feelings of the creator or maker. What is more notable aside from

the special use of words is the memorable arrangement of words is a line, the spur of the

moment as expressed by the creator, the poet that conveys a strong expression of emotion.

(Bates, K.L. 1991).

The arrangement of lines in a poem creates an impact to the reader, and the special

use of words of figurative meaning makes poetry a stand-out from any other genre in

Literature for the language of poetry is the language of the emotions of mean. (Benneru,

1999).

How the poem mean correlates to the special use of words in a line that express

figurative speech as in simile, or metaphor or personification a in a poem by Emily

Dickenson “The Moon is but a Chin of Gold”. The great American poet describes the face of

the moon like that of a beautiful woman (Chewey, 2016). The figure of speech

personification is employed in those lines.

 Her lips of Amber never part-

But what must he the smile

Upon her friend she could confer

Were such her silver will-

The poetic use of words in a figure of speech may even be distinguished as the basis

of one particular poet’s imagery as the lyric poems of Robert Frost, the two-time American

award-winner of Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Frost’s use of imagery in taken from nature as in

his famous poems “Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening” (Donne, M.D. 2000).

Poets whose memorable experience is in the cities as Langsten Hugles drew his poetic

images from the sight, smells, and sounds of city life, as in his famous poem “Mother To

Sun” (Grier, A. J., 2005).

In the process of appraisals of the lyric poems to be taken and appreciated of the

participants, the researcher needs to provide a brief background information of the poet,

reading the poem aloud, pointing out the meaning of difficult words that the participants need

to search the poetic devices the poem expressed as to the use of sounds, imagery and

arrangement of words in the line or syntax.

In view of the figures of speech employed in the poem, the participants have to point

out line after line in the poem. The particular figures of speech have to be identified, and the

holistic meaning is later on explained as the theme of the poem. For the enrichment of the

learning process, the researcher has to explore the vocabulary of the participants, and their

experience in selection to the total meaning or message of the poem, the researcher has to

motivate the participants to give similar figures of speech found in the poem. The researcher
has to guide them by drawing imagery they are familiar with and they have experienced.

Therefore, the appreciation of the poem would have become enjoyable and memorable.

The researchers needs to point out the words that create picture, and to use these

words in a phrase to mean figuratively. Particular figure of speech would have been formed

as the simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, and others poetic devices.

B. Research Question:

The research questions that the researchers considered relevant to be answered are:

1. To what degree of competences do the participants manifest in recognizing figures

of speech of lyric poetry?

2. How the participants’ competences of understanding figurative speech of lyric

poetry?

C. The Aim of Study

In view of the problems considered, the study aims:

1. To recognize the figures of speech o lyric poetry.

2. To appreciate words and phrases of figurative meaning.

3. To discuss and appraise the response of participants in dealing with figurative

speech in lyric poetry.

D. The Significance of the Study

1. The researcher may foresee that the research would provide theoretical and

practical motivation of participants of recognizing and appraising figures of speech of figure

of poetry.
 2. The researcher may provide additional idea to teachers that may apply to their

teaching of the art of recognizing and appraising figures of speech of lyric poetry.

E. Terminology

1. Figurative of Speech always involved some sort of imaginative. Comparison

between seemingly unlike things. The most common are simile, metaphor and

personification.

2. Lyric poetry expresses the speaker’s emotions or thoughts and does not

necessarily tell a narrative or story. The term lyric derives from Ancient Greece, where such

poems were related to the accompaniment of stringed instrument called lyre. Most lyric

poems are short, and these imply, rather than state directly a single strong emotion.
 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. The Scope of Figurative Language

1. The Definition of figurative language

Figurative language is not meant literally, or exactly as the dictionary definition of the

words would indicate. One important type of connecting words like or as to point out a

similar quality in two generally unlike things. For example, the man’s bright dinner jacket

looks like a comforted flag. The dinner jacket and the flag are unlike in many ways but they

are similar in being bright and showy (Prost, 1985).

A metaphor also indicates a similar quality in two generally unlike things. However

metaphors do not use the words like or as. The simplest way to create a metaphor is to say

that two dissimilar things are the same. For example: This can be turned simile, describing

the dinner jacket into a metaphor by stating this: The man’s bright dinner jacket is an

unfurled flag. This can also be created to a metaphor by speaking about one thing in terms of

another. For example: The crowd floods in to the open area, swirls around, and collects in

small pools of people. In this metaphor, the italicized words describe the crowd as if it were

water.

An extended metaphor is a metaphor that continues as a single phrase or sentences.

This may begin such a metaphor by saying: The tornado is a dragon; gobbling up the houses.

Then the metaphor may extend by continuing to describe the tornado as a dragon.

Samuel Cabridge, (Grier, A.J., 2005) defined the figurative language of poetry as the

best words in the best order. The arrangement of the words in a line creates a memorable
impact to the reader, and the musical quality by the use of rhythm and rhyme adds a pleasant

experience of reading poetry.

Rhyme is the repetition of a sound in to or more words or phrases. The common type

of rhyme that occurs at the end of lines is called end rhyme. However, rhyme can occur

within a line as well. Same rhymes are exact rhyme, like peas and cheese. The sounds of

these words are exactly alike, except for the consonants at the beginning. Other rhymes are

half rhymes words whose sounds are similar but not identical like pans and hams.

Rhyme is important for several reasons. This may provide pleasant leading experience

of poetry that makes it enjoyable. The poet or creator of the poem may vary the rhyme

scheme or pattern of rhymes to focus attention on a particular passage (Israel, 2017).

The poems of Walt Whitman defines the traditional kind of poetry that employ rhyme

scheme and exact rhythm, intrusted Whitman employs in his poetry the free verse that is free

of exact use of rhythm and rhyme. Even the lines of Whitman’s poverty are layer that defy

the rigid use of rhythm (Keats, N.D.). Unlike the traditional use of rhythm poetry, exact meter

employed. This may be in iambic meter, trochee, ___, dactyl and spondee (Keats, N.D.).

A metrical line is named for the type of foot and the number of feet in the line. Thus a

line of free aim is called iambic pentameter; a line of four trochees is trochaic tetrameter

(Marlowe, C. & Bullen, 1988).

In lyric poetry, the sensory use of language appeals to the senses. Poets and writers

frequently include details that appeal to the sense of sights, hearing, touch, taste and smell

(Mcfarland, 2015).

The use of sensory language is the portrayal of words in lyric poetry to create pictures

in word of peoples and places. Also this creates feelings or mode.

 The famous poem of Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on A Snowy Evening”

described the sensory image from nature like “the easy wind and downy flake”. Here, the

imagery from nature, forest filled with snow, the dark, cold evening, the snow flakes, the cold

wind, the icy water of the lake- these imagery profoundly made palpable the message of the

poems (Raffol, 1998).

In the poem “The Fly” by John Donne, the imagery of the fly that sucked the blood of

the man and woman, provides the argument of the man to pursue his love intention to his

woman by saying that both of them were already one in marriage for the blood inside the

belly of the fly that sucked both of them (Reyes, 1998).

In the poem by John Keats, “Ode to The Grecian Urn“, the imagery of a procession

beautifully ____ on the old Grecian urn provides the main idea of the poem that beauty from

nature is temporal while that of art as exemplified the Grecian urn is permanent (Rogers,

2000). The figurative language of the poetry during the Romantic Period as of the poems of

the great Romantic poets, like Witham words worth, John Keats, Lord Byron where great

English poets employed imagery from nature just like Ode to The _____ by Percy Bysshe

Shelley another equally great poems, expressing the magical moment of seeing the blooming

_____ beside the lake by William. Wards worth celebrated the beauty of nature.

The use of imagery from Mother Nature had always been the favourite poetic device

of poets as William Shakespeare did in his many famous poems like “Shall I Compare Thee

to Summer’s Day”, the great English poet contrasted the temporal imagery of summer’s day

against the permanent beauty of his poem (Rogers, 2000).

The figurative language John Witham “Paradise Lost” that of the Lost Paradise where

the fall of men to the hands of Satan, in many parts indulged the imagery of the created world

of nature.
 In the poem by Edith Tiempo “Bonsai” the imagery focused the importance of small

things like Bonsai, that this provides lasting memories in a lifetime; although this maybe

small like Bonsai, but its dynamic memories cannot be forgotten (Rogers, 2000).

The use of imagery in the poem by Jose Garcia Villa, “Poem 10: First A poem Be

Magical”, the poem employs the imagery of seagull, birds flowering, slender bell, bow,

luminance of dove and deer, and the image of the all-knowing God (Rudolf, 1976). These and

more, the use of imagery in figurative language is a portrayal in words of sight, sound, touch,

taste and smell in order to create desired thoughts and feelings in a poem. Thus, writing a

poem effectively is by presentation of causes and circumstances of the desired emotion or

emotions in a thought or feeling in a poem. (Seney,1989).

The imagery of looking back on how things were in the past between a daughter and

her father is best employed in the poem “Breathing Through” by Myona Peña Reyes. Here,

the poet or creator of the poem be speaks how she is brought up by her father as seen through

the image of the well tightened knots of the parcel sent to her from her father. The speaker of

the poem, the daughter remembered how her father disciplined her as this; she saw it on how

her father ties up the knots of the parcel (Tiempo). Thus, the presentation of the imagery and

how this is dramatized to show its relevance can be of great importance to create the main

idea of the poem.

Another poem that utilizes the use of imagery to show the comparison of an old poet

to a young and building poet, that employs images from the created world of nature as well as

from man, is the poem, “Pain In The Morning Sun” by Hilarion Generoso. The poem speaks

of the high and low in the craft of poetry.

B. Purpose of Figurative Language

Writing a piece of poetry is a craft and at the same time an art. A poem that is the

product of the craft of writing a piece of poetry is replete of the art of writing in the level of

figurative language. Before the poet writes a poem on a blank sheet of paper, the feeling in a

thought becomes the poet’s purpose. And how he “clothes” this feeling in a thought is

somehow the demarcation line between the great poet and the minor poet.

In the poems of William Shakespeare, the great master of words had shown his

magical use of figurative language compared to the less known poets. Right away, any well-

trained reader can see and feel the beauty of language of figures of speech the poet employs

in a great poem that shows the effective use of rhythm and rhyme; the focus of the theme and

imagery; the words and phrases (Turner, 1976). Thus, the purpose of the employed imagery

through the portrayal of words is a matter of success or failure that of the craft of writing a

piece of poetry. And guiding the pupils or students on how to appreciate the poem written by

the great master of the craft of poetry, is a matter that needs to be emphasized in an English

class. The researcher feels that art of appreciating a piece of poetry as to lyric poetry can be

easier and more enjoyable. And the researcher thinks that appreciating a poem is never a

difficult learning task.

C. An Overview of the Questionnaire employed in this research

Example of questions used for one particular poem “Night Clouds” by Amy Lowell, a

great American poet of the early 20th century.

Night Clouds

The white mares of the moon rush along the sky

Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass Heavens

 The white mares of the moon are all standing on their hind legs

Pawning at the green porcelain doors of the remose Heavens.

Fly Mares!

Strain your utmost.

Scatter the milky dust of stars,

Or the Tiger sun will leap upon you and destroy you

With one lick of his vermilion tongue,

Questions:

Recall and Interpret questions

1. What does the speaker the poem describe in lines 1-4?

a. Dark clouds b. yellow clouds c. night clouds d. day clouds

2. What words or lines from the poem imply the message?

a. white mares of the moon

b. beating their golden porcelain door

c. pawning at the green porcelain door

d. tiger sun… destroy you.. With one lock

Evaluate and connect questions

3. What images in the poem is creative and unusual?

a. green porcelain door

 b. upon the glass door

c. misery dust of stars

d. white mares of the moon

4. The message of the poem tells that everything is destined to end and nothing

remains per moment. How does this message of the poem does influenced man’s way of

loving?

a. Enjoy while still young

b. Stay as what you are to day

c. Live life’s best to the fullest

d. live and let die

5. Why does the poet compare the clouds to mares or houses?

a. Horses don’t run fast

b. Horses can’t run fast

c. Horses can run so fast

d. Horses can run so slow

The test was administered on the fourth week of one-hour session each meeting. The

test was composed of ten questions, five questions for each of the two lyric poems name by

“Nigh Clouds” by Amy Lowell and “Feeling About words” by Mary O’neill. The answers

were corrected and evaluated. The posters would administered to the five participants had

shown remarkable improvement compared to the pre-test administered the first week of the

intervention.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Brief Description of the Research Location

The research took place at the San Jose Elementary School, one of the fifty barangays

of the municipality of Sergio Osmeña in the province of Zamboanga del Norte in Region IX.

The elementary school is around 110 kilometres away from the Municipal Hall of Sergio

Osmeña which was created to become a municipality in 1961.

The population of the school is more than four hundred (400) pupils, to include the

Kindergarten up to Grade VI. The Faculty is composed of 17 teachers to include the school

principal and 16 teaching staff. The school was founded in 19- where there were- teachers.

Today, the school had- school buildings.

B. Research Design

The research method is concerned with how the method is implemented, and how the

research is carried out, the researchers used the Action Research in order to obtain

information from the implementation of appraising the figurative language of lyric poetry as

performed by the five participants from the grade I pupil San Jose Elementary School.

The research is implemented in four weeks in which a pre-test is administered first to

the five participants, and the test result is compared to the post-test in the fourth week, after

the implementation of the study.

C. The Data Collection

The data collection method is the method to obtain the data in the research; the

researcher used the test and questionnaire.

The test is an instrument to investigate the levels of recognition and understanding of

figurative language in lyric poetry. The best is in two categories, the pre-test that was

administered prior to the intervention and the post-test after the intervention study.

The questionnaire was used to know the five participants responses towards the

questionnaire consisted of 10 questions about the levels of recognition and understanding of

the figurative language of lyric poetry. The questionnaire was given at the end of the four-

week sessions.

D. The Data Analysis

1. Test

The data analysis involved independent sample in order to know the comparison of

two samples that do not depend in each other. An analysing the test results, the researcher

used the mean, the standard deviation and the score. The mean is utilized to find out the

average of the whole sample. In order to know he mean, the research used formula.

Σʃ xi
x=
Σʃi

Note:

X = Mean

Σʃxi = The sum of the score

ʃi = Total participants
 Standard deviation is a statistics that describe the amount of variation in a measured

process characteristic. Specifically, it measured the amount of an individual measurement

that should be expected to deviate from the mean on average. As shown below, the layer the

standard deviation, the more dispersion there is in the process data.

The formula of standard deviation is as follows:

Σʃi(x −x) Σʃi(x−x )²

SD² = −
n−i n−i

Note:

SD = Standard Deviation

Σʃi = The sum of frequency

X = Mean

Σx² = The sum of score square

N = The number of samples

The researcher used t-score (test score) to find out whether pre-test and post-test have

a significant difference. The formula is as follows:

xˌ−x ₂

t-score = √¿¿¿

Note:

T = T- score

Xˌ = Mean of the Post-test

X₂ = Mean of the Pre-test

 SDˌ = Standard Deviation of Post-test

SD₂ = Standard Deviation of Pre-test

N = Total Participant

2. Questionnaire

In the research, the questionnaire was analysed to obtain additional information about

participant responses toward the recognition and understanding of figurative language of lyric

poetry. The formula to analyse the questionnaire as follows:

P = fnx100%

Note:

P = Percentage

F = Frequency

N = The number of sampling

100% + Constant value

1. The First Week

In the meeting, the researcher had instructed first the five participants of proper health

protocols especially important during this pandemic time of COVID’19 that was wearing of

face mask and face shield, and proper social distancing. After the instructions the research

presented the task of the research study: To recognize and understand the figurative language

of lyric poetry. The researcher using the Power Point Projector presented the ever loved and

popular poem by Joyce Kilmer “The Tree” which goes this way:

I think that I shall never see

 A poem lovely as the tree

The tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Upon the Earth’s sweet flowing breast

(etc.)

After the reading of the poem by the researcher find, then followed by the five

participants, the poem was sung by the researcher first and then by the five participants.

In the next activity, the researcher pointed out the words and phrases used in

figurative level. The words and phrases as follows:

Hungry mouth is pressed

Earth’s sweet flowing breast

(etc.)

The researcher told the participants what they would learn in the next sessions. Before

the first session ended, the researcher gave the pre-test sheet and gave clear instructions to

them to know their ability of the recognition and understanding of figurative language of lyric

poetry.

2. The Second Meeting

The researcher in the second meeting, after taking into considerations the health

protocols, a review of the previous activity was pointed out, especially on the Pre-test and its

scope of study.

The session for one hour was focused on the presentation of what is a lyric poetry,

how it is composed of, and how it is written in a verse or line form.

 The figure of speech and the most common types were pointed out namely the use of

simile, metaphor and personification. Examples of simile were pointed in the poem___. The

use of as and like to show the comparison of two dissimilar objects or thing were focused.

The used of metaphor was discussed the researcher specified the direct comparison

used in metaphor, the opposite to the use of simile that was indirect and the researcher

pointed out the use of personification in lyric poetry, pointing out the giving of human

attribute to inanimate objects or things. One example of lyric poem exemplified the use of

simile, metaphor and personification in the poem, “Feelings About Words” by Mary O’Niell.

The session ended with the oral reading of the poem by the participants.

3. The Third Meeting

The researcher in the third meeting, after the health protocols due to the COVID’19

pandemic, gave a brief review of the last meeting, and after which, the discussion was

focused on the use of other figures of speech, namely by hyperbole and irony.

Hyperbole used exaggeration to express story emotion or create a description on to

emphasize the essential nature of something. The use of irony showed contrast or discrepancy

between expectation and reality. In verbal irony, the speaker in the poem stated one thing but

meant the opposite. In situational irony, what actually happened was the opposite of what is

expected to happen.

The one-hour session ended, after the participants had presented their own words and

phrases that expressed irony and hyperbole.

The succeeding sessions of the second, third and fourth week, the discussions were

focused on the use of the figurative language of lyric poetry. In the fourth week, the post-test

was administered. The ten questions were all about “Night Clouds” and “Feelings About
words” by Mary O’Niell. And the questionnaire was administered to the five participants in

the last day of the fourth week