Creative Writing Unit 4-3

Presentation

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English

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11th Grade

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Hard

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CCSS

RL.9-10.10, RI.9-10.4, RI.11-12.5

+13

Standards-aligned

Cynthia Phillips

Used 3+ times

FREE Resource

19 Slides • 8 Questions

Creative Writing Unit 4 - 3

Figurative Language

4-1 Due Date 4/02

4-2 Due Date 4/04

4-3 Due Date 4/11

4-4 Due Date 4/16

4.5.2 CST & 4.5.3 TST Due 4/19

Objectives

Explore the difference between metaphor and simile and discover how they can make language and images strange and new.
Investigate the ways in which personification and synesthesia can blend what we observe through our senses into language and images that add surprise to poetry.
Observe and explore the use of figurative language in poetry through guided close reading.

4.3.1 page 1

One of a writer's most powerful tools is figurative language, or language that moves beyond literal meaning and requires imagination to understand. By expressing something mundane in a new way using figurative language, the writer brings the reader's attention into the world once again.

Note the metaphor!!

4.3.1 pages 2 - 3

A simile is a highly effective way to make meaningful comparisons. It compares two things using the words like or as to introduce the comparison.

Examples of similes include "Your heart is like a summer sky," "He was as calm as a sleeping baby."

When you use a simile, you draw more attention to the fact that you're making a comparison. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. The important thing is that your simile is surprising and helps the reader's mind focus on the image as something new and interesting.

As you write, consider what a reader's reaction might be to the comparisons you choose.

4.3.1 pages 4 - 6

A metaphor can be simply constructed by removing the words like or as from a simile.

Example: Changing the simile, "The sun is like a golden bird," into "The sun is a golden bird."

Metaphor can relate two things by using the word of to show that one is made of or extremely similar to the other.

Example: The golden bird of sun.

Metaphor can also be expressed as an implication by saying one thing but expecting that the reader will see it as a metaphor for something else.

Example: At dawn the golden bird flew.

A writer can also utilize an extended metaphor in which two things are further compared.

Example: A yellow bird settles onto the horizon, ruffling its feathers of fire before sinking into the sea.

4.3.1 page 7

Perhaps the most difficult kind of metaphor to write and understand is the metaphor of implication — a metaphor that can be difficult to identify as a metaphor at all!

Often we see metaphors when an item is equated with something else directly in the sentence, as in "This homework is torture." But a metaphor can also be present when we sense that a word, phrase, or image is being compared to something else that is not named directly. Poets often use metaphors to stand in for something they may not mention directly, but if used well, the reader senses another meaning.

"1994" by Lucille Clifton

i was leaving my fifty-eighth year
when a thumb of ice
stamped itself hard near my heart

4.3.1 page 8

A metaphor can be used to compare concrete things to each other, but it can also be used to make something intangible seem more real.

For example: With "anger" you could write "anger is a swirling red cape." A swirly red cape is a concrete image that could suggest a sense of fury or disorientation.

4.3.1 Read & Respond Extended Metaphor

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

BY EMILY DICKINSON

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -

And sore must be the storm -

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -

And on the strangest Sea -

Yet - never - in Extremity,

It asked a crumb - of me.

4.3.1 page 12

Avoid cliche

One of the biggest struggles many writers have is trying to avoid cliché. A cliché is a phrase, image, or idea that has become "worn out" or no longer meaningful because it has been overused.

Multiple Choice

Decide which one of the following descriptions feels like a cliche:

A mouse as small as a tea kettle

Leaves burdened by the heavy morning dew

He avoided the girl like the plague

His hands flashing like fish in the river

Review 4.3.1 Study

Metaphor and simile grab the reader's attention and help to make an image new and strange when it may otherwise seem mundane.
Extended metaphors compare two things and then build on this relationship or explore many facets of the correlation beyond the initial image (sometimes for an entire poem).
Like metaphor, simile also compares two things but always with a comparison word, such as like or as.
Switching from a metaphor to a simile (or vice versa) may sometimes change the tone of the comparison.

4.3.3 pages 2 - 6

Personification - giving human characteristics to animals or inanimate objects.

If a normal, everyday object acted like a person, what would it say or do? Using personification gives writers the capacity to imbue any object with human emotion and create sympathy with the reader.

Whatever you are personifying, try to immerse yourself in its experience.

4.3.3 page 7

Personification can also take the form of giving human qualities to abstract concepts or emotions.

For example, if "anger" were a person, what might it act like or do? How might giving this feeling human qualities help your reader get a better image or understanding of anger?

4.3.3 page 9

Synesthesia

The application of language normally used to describe one sense (sight, smell, and so on) to a different sense.

Example: The apple tasted like a crisp blue sky.

Think about Wagner and his red opera.

Sound waves and light waves

1. Dante in The Divine Comedy (1472): “Back to the region where the sun is silent.”
2. John Keats in "Ode to a Nightingale" (1819): “Tasting of Flora and the country green”
3. Robert Frost in “Fire and Ice” (1920): “From what I've tasted of desire”
4. William Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1605): “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was.”
5. Oscar Wilde in Salomé (1891): “Thy voice was a censer that scattered strange perfumes, and when I looked on thee I heard a strange music.”

I took this from https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-use-synesthesia-in-your-writing#6T8twCSmn15NwSG2d653Al

Synesthesia can create powerful connotations and associations in the mind of the reader. Just by showing one sense being perceived in a different way, we can remind the reader of other associations he or she may have with a second sense. This fresh combination can make every part of the image more vivid and engaging.

For example, for the given sentence, "The hot dog tasted salty and good," you might write, "The hot dog tasted like a stroll down the boardwalk on Coney Island, the Ferris wheel turning in the sea air."

4.3.3 page 12