5 Minute Tip Session – Figurative Language
Literal language is language that means exactly what is said. Most of the time, we
use literal language. The opposite of literal language is figurative language.
Figurative language is language that means more than what it says on the surface. It
usually gives us a feeling about its subject.
Figurative language can be thought about as falling in three categories:

Sound Devices

Comparisons

Concepts
This session is focusing on comparisons; however I have included some definitions
for the other two categories at the end of these notes. The exercise is from
about.com and the definitions are from about.com, Wikipedia, and
http://www.alamo.edu/sac/english/dstallins/Lec_notes_onMSword/FigLangTable.htm
Comparisons include:
Similes
Metaphors
Personifications
Anthropomorphisms
Allusions
Analogy’s
Allegory’s
Parables
Discussion question:
Or something to think about while you are working through this session:
1. Do you need to know what figurative language is, and what type of figurative
language you are using, to be a good writer? Why / Why not?
2. Does the use of figurative language always improve your writing? Why/Why
not?
3. Is figurative language only for use in fiction writing?
Comparisons
A metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things that does not use "like" or "as."
Used well, metaphors are an efficient way of conveying an image or idea to your
reader. eg...his hair was bone white. Used poorly, however, they confuse or distract
your reader.
An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is continued over multiple sentences. Eg:
Suzie is a beautiful young flowering girl. Her cheeks are flush with the spring of life.
She has the fragrance of youth about her.
A simile is a comparison of two things using "like" or "as." Eg: Its fleece was white
as snow. Suzie is as quiet as a mouse and as tall as a giraffe.
Personification is a figure of speech in which objects or nonhuman organisms are
given human characteristics. Eg: The old mansion glowered down at us from the top
of the hill.
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of a personal nature or character to other
forms of life (animals). Eg: The cat seemed to sneer as they walked closer to the
light.
An Allusion is a reference to a work outside the body of the poem, story, or essay.
Allusions can historical, literary, mythological, Biblical, or cultural. Eg: Like Helen of
Troy, Jennifer had no need to talk much. He used to be my Romeo.
An Analogy is sometimes called an extended metaphor. An analogy often compares
something that is unfamiliar to something that is familiar or easy to understand. This
makes the unfamiliar thing easier to understand.
An allegory is a story in which the characters represent a single virtue, value, or
emotion. Their names often state what they stand for as in Young Goodman Brown.
Excerpt from Young Goodman Brown: Young Goodman Brown came forth, at
sunset, into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the
threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was
aptly named, thrust her pretty head into the street while she called to Goodman
Brown. “Dearest heart,” whispered she, “put off your journey until sunrise.”
A Parable is a story that uses analogy to make a point, using human characters
(whereas fables use animals, plants and forces of nature as characters). It generally
relates a single, simple, consistent action, without a great deal of circumstantial
detail, and expresses a moral lesson.
Figurative language in use
Here are some samples from published books using examples of figurative language. What
type of figurative language is being used? How effective do you think it is?
Last Train from Liguria - Christine Dwyer Hickey
As soon as I settled into the carriage, the missing hangover decided to return, making up for
lost time with full devotion. It caught me by the scruff of the neck and dragged me through
fire and ice, fire and ice. It sucked every drop of spit from my mouth and then sucked the
bones out of my fingers. It sat on my chest and gnawed at my stomach, it raged through
every nook and cranny of me. Even my earlobes felt hot and sore.
(Kindle loc 142-51)
She misses the sullen shift of the sea, its curious muscularity, pushing everything on, giving
the impression of always being in charge.
(loc 719-28)
The Girl with the Glass Feet - Ali Shaw.
That winter Midas had seen photos everywhere. They haunted the woods and lurked at the
ends of deserted streets.
(loc 58-65)
Crows wheeled in a sky of oily rags. Hidden water gurgled nearby, welling into a dark pool
at the bottom. Above the pool the ray of light dangled like a golden ribbon.
(loc 73 – 81).
Animal Dreams – Barbara Kingsolver
The leaves shine like knife blades in the beam of his flashlight. The rain has slowed, but the
arryo is still a fierce river of mud and uprooted trees that won’t crest until dawn. He is wet
and chilled to his spine. The girls are lost. The sound of the flood makes his blood cold.
(loc 300 – 307)
“…Codi, they’ve been asking me when you were going to get here till I thought they’d turn
blue in the face, and now they’re acting like they were raised outside in a pen with the
dogs”.
(loc 586-96)
Exercise 1
See how many of these definitions you can match up with the correct
terms.
Simile
Allusion
Metaphor
Analogy
Anthropomorphism
Allegory
Extended Metaphor
Personification
Parable
A ___________ is a comparison of two unlike things that does not use "like" or "as."
Used well, they are an efficient way of conveying an image or idea to your reader.
eg...his hair was bone white.
An ____________ is a metaphor that is continued over multiple sentences. Eg:
Suzie is a beautiful young flowering girl. Her cheeks are flush with the spring of life.
She has the fragrance of youth about her.
A _____________ is a comparison of two things using "like" or "as." Eg: Its fleece
was white as snow.
____________ is a figure of speech in which objects or nonhuman organisms are
given human characteristics. Eg: The old mansion glowered down at us from the top
of the hill.
_______________ is the attribution of a personal nature or character to other forms
of life (animals). Eg: The cat seemed to sneer as they walked closer to the light.
An _____________ is a reference to a work outside the body of the poem, story, or
essay. They can be historical, literary, mythological, Biblical, or cultural. Eg: Like
Helen of Troy, Jennifer had no need to talk much. He used to be my Romeo.
An ____________ is sometimes called an extended metaphor, and often compares
something that is unfamiliar to something that is familiar or easy to understand. This
makes the unfamiliar thing easier to understand.
An ____________ is a story in which the characters represent a single virtue, value,
or emotion. Their names often state what they stand for as in Young Goodman
Brown. Excerpt from Young Goodman Brown: Young Goodman Brown came forth,
at sunset, into the street at Salem village; but put his head back, after crossing the
threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was
aptly named, thrust her pretty head into the street while she called to Goodman
Brown. “Dearest heart,” whispered she, “put off your journey until sunrise.”
A ______________ is a story that uses analogy to make a point, using human
characters (whereas fables use animals, plants and forces of nature as characters).
It generally relates a single, simple, consistent action, without a great deal of
circumstantial detail, and expresses a moral lesson.
Exercise 2
This can be used as a warm up, before getting down to writing, or simply as a brain
stretcher when you have a spare 10 minutes. Finish each phrase on the sheet with
whatever metaphor or simile comes immediately to mind (don’t worry about whether it is a
metaphor or simile, simply finish the sentence).
1. Blue paint spilled on the road like___________________________.
2. Cancelled checks in the abandoned subway car seemed ________________.
3. A spider under the rug is like___________________________.
4. Graffiti on the abandoned building like___________________________.
5. Nothing was the same, now that it was___________________________.
6. The dice rolled out of the cup toward Veronica like ____________________.
7. A child in ____________ is like a _____________ in _________________.
8. _________________is like muscles stretched taut over bone.
9. The fog plumed through gunshot holes in the car windows like
___________________.
10. She held her life in her own hands as if it were_________________________.
11. Lacey poured coffee down her throat as if ___________________________.
12. The security guard walks the lobby as if ___________________________.
13. The library books left in the rain like___________________________.
14. Music in the hallway like___________________________.
Other types of figurative language:
Sound Devices
Alliteration
Assonance
Anaphora
Onomatopoeia
Rhyme
Rhythm
Alliteration The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or group of sounds in a
series of words. Alliteration includes tongue twisters. Cold are the crabs that crawl on
yonder hills. Mother whose heart hung humble as a button, do not weep. The weary,
way-worn wanderer bore to his own native shore.
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. As the wooden doors opened, in the
tide of light my bride closed her eyes; Mother whose heart hung humble as a button,
do not weep; The June moon loomed over the horizon.
Anaphora is the repetition of words or groups of words. Winston Churchill’s June 4,
1940 speech broadcast to the British nation: “Even though large tracts of Europe
have fallen into the grip of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the
end, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall
defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall
fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall
fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
Onomatopoeia are words that imitate the sounds they represent. Eg Caw, boom,
hiss, sizzle, mumble, moan, clang, swish, screech, buzz, burble.
Rhyme is generally a correspondence in ending sounds. When reading rhyme, do
not pause at the end of every line. Follow the punctuation; pause when the
punctuation signals it.
The rhyme scheme is the pattern of a rhyme.
Kubla Khan (1798) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
a
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
b
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
c
Through caverns measureless to man c
Down to a sunless sea.
b
Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds. A common rhythm in
poetry and drama is iambic pentameter.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence and the King
In deadly hate the one against the other.
Concepts
Irony
Antithesis
Paradox
Understatement
Hyperbole
Idiom
Synecdoche
Pun
Idiom
Cliché
Symbolism
Irony is stating the opposite of what is meant. Or irony is saying one thing and
expecting the audience to understand (realize) something else.
Antithesis is a balancing of opposites. Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep,
and you weep alone; Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I love Rome more.
A paradox is a contradiction that still makes sense. The child is father of the man; A
man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone;
Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.
Understatement is saying less than what is meant. Admittedly, a nuclear impact
would place a great strain on public moral. -British government statement in the
1950s on the possible results of an atomic attack on London; “It is a bit damp,”
Nathan observed as he stood in the knee-deep water in the basement.
Hyperbole, a type of figure of speech, uses exaggeration or overstatement for
emphasis - It is saying more than what is real or what is actually meant. The super cone
has scoops of ice cream a mile high.
A Synecdoche is a kind of figurative language in which a part stands for the whole,
or vice versa. Eg Saying the "White House," to mean the U.S. government.
A pun is a play on words, often humorous, that uses words that have similar or
identical sounds but very different meanings.
An idiom is peculiar to itself either grammatically (as no, it wasn't me) or in having a
meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements
Eg: Monday week for "the Monday a week after next Monday".
A cliché is an expression that has been used so often that it has become trite and
sometimes boring. Eg: Many hands make light work.
Symbolism is the use of a noun (which has meaning in itself) to represent
something else.