Metaphor & Simile

Metaphor & Simile

Creative Writing Exercise

Poetry uses specific words to express feelings or ideas. It often uses a distinct style or form, literary devices, and rhythm.

Poetry is written in LINES

Poetry often has a rhythm or "beat" (meter)

Poetry often uses: alliteration, assonance, consonance, rhyme, figurative language, personification, metaphor, simile, imagery, onomatopoeia, symbol, and many, many more literary techniques.

Multiple Choice

Writing that appeals to the senses is called...

• Alliteration

• Imagery

• Vision

• Sensors

Imagery is very important in poetry (and all good writing...!)

• It can help a reader SEE

• It can help a reader HEAR

• It can help a reader recall a SMELL, TASTE, or TOUCH

• We create imagery by using specific nouns, active verbs, and literary devices like...simile, metaphor, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.

Similes and Metaphors help create Imagery in writing by helping a reader see! (visual imagery)

• Example: You are as brave as a lion. (simile)

• You are a lion hunting its prey in the tall grass. (metaphor)

• Now get ready to practice creating some similes/metaphors...

• Remember that a simile uses "LIKE" or "AS" and compares 2 unrelated NOUNS (people, places, things, ideas, etc.)

• A metaphor makes a direct comparison between 2 NOUNS.

• Ready....?

Open Ended

Write a simile:

My mother (or brother, sister, grandmother, father, etc.) is like...

Open Ended

Write a metaphor...

My life is...

Open Ended

Write either a metaphor or simile:

School is...

Open Ended

Write either a metaphor or simile:

My family is...

Open Ended

Write a metaphor or simile...

Poetry is...

Forest Of Europe by Derek Walcott

The last leaves fell like notes from a piano

and left their ovals echoing in the ear;

with gawky music stands, the winter forest

looks like an empty orchestra,

its lines ruled on these scattered manuscripts of snow.

Open Ended

Now it's your turn. Write a short poem (at least 3 lines) that uses a metaphor or simile. To begin, pick a topic (ex. a forest in winter) and in poetic lines, describe the noun (person, place, thing, idea...):