Figurative Language

Question 1

Metaphor

Answer 1

Metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things that have something in common Metaphor doesn’t use like or as but equates the two unlike things, often using a form of “to be” as the verb
Example: From “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes: “The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas ”

Question 2

Personification

Answer 2

Personi cation is giving human personality traits, emotions, and qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas
Example: From “The Tyger” by William Blake: “When the stars threw down their spears, / And water’d heaven with their tears, “

Question 3

Alliteration

Answer 3

Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables Example: From “Crystal Moment” by Robert Peter Tristram Cof n: “He leaned toward the land
and life ”

Question 4

Onomatopoeia

Answer 4

Onomatopoeia is using words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions of the words
Example: From “Dust Bowl Disaster” by Alex Porter and Kristin Lewis: “Suddenly, Ike felt a powerful jolt Bzzt! Electricity shot through the car, shorting it out ”

Question 5

Oxymoron

Answer 5

Oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms
Example: From “The Runaway” by Robert Frost: “We heard the miniature thunder where he ed ”

Question 6

Assonance

Answer 6

Assonance is also referred to as “vowel rhyme ” It’s the repetition of similar vowel sounds in adjacent words
Example: From “A narrow fellow in the grass” by Emily Dickinson: “ a transport / of cordiality ”

Question 7

Repetition

Answer 7

Repetition is the repeating of a word within a sentence or a poetical line within a stanza or
throughout a poem
Example: From “The Day I Walked and Walked” by Ahmon’dra (Brenda) McClendon: “Well, we walked and we walked, and it seemed like we walked around that building for a long time ”

Question 8

Simile

Answer 8

Simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things that have something in common A simile uses like or as to make the comparison
Example: From “La Bamba” by Gary Soto: “The sheets were as cold as the moon that stood over the peach tree in their backyard ”