Figurative Language Practice

Front

Figurative language in: “And your very flesh shall be a great poem" - Walt Whitman

Back

Metaphor

Answer explanation

Whitman isn’t suggesting that your flesh is literally a poem—that would be both impossible and uncomfortable—but rather that your entire self is a work of art.

Front

Figurative language in Sylvia Plath's quote: “Mirror - Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me, searching my reaches for what she really is.”

Back

Personification

Answer explanation

Plath isn’t suggesting that the mirror is literally a lake—that would be impossible. Instead she's trying to say that people get caught up in their appearances searching for something too big to be contained in a mirror.

Front

Figurative language in: “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty" - Maya Angelou

Back

Symbolism

Answer explanation

Maya Angelou is trying to express that people can get caught up focusing on the beautiful end result rather than the hard work that went into becoming that way. The butterfly symbolizes a person who worked through hardships.

Front

Figurative language in: “The poems were cool. The best ones were like bombs, and when all the right words came together, it was like an explosion.” - Kwame Alexander

Back

Simile

Answer explanation

Remember that similes are comparisons of two things using the words "like" or "as". Keep an eye out for them!

Front

Figurative language in: “Oh, the bells, bells, bells! What a tale their terror tells of Despair! How they clang, and clash, and roar!” - Edgar Allan Poe

Back

Onomatopoeia

Answer explanation

Clang, clash, and roar are all descriptive words used to help readers conceptualize the sound of the bells

Front

Figurative language in Coleridge's quote: “The fair breeze blow, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.”

Back

Alliteration

Answer explanation

Authors will repeat beginning sounds in words to make their poems more pleasing to hear aloud

Front

Figurative language in the quote: “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary... suddenly there came a tapping.” - Edgar Allan Poe

Back

Rhyme

Answer explanation

Most often we see rhymes at the end of each line, as seen in Edgar Allan Poe's poem here!