Figurative Language in Literature

What literary device is being used in this example:

"The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor."

• simile

• metaphor

• oxymoron

• hyperbole

Answer explanation

The moon is being compared to a galleon (ship), and the road is compared to a ribbon of moonlight, without using "like" or "as"

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

What literary device is being used in this example:

"Like burnt out torches by a sick man's bed,
gaunt cypress trees stand 'round."

• simile

• metaphor

• anthropomorphism

• allusion

Answer explanation

The cypress trees are being compared to torches using "like."

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

What literary device is being used in this example:

"The leaves are little yellow fish

swimming in the river."

• metaphor

• Simile

• allusion

• hyperbole

Answer explanation

The leaves are being compared to fish without using "like" or "as."

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

What literary device is being used in this example:

"They only know our love was brief,
And passing like an autumn leaf."

• metaphor

• oxymoron

• hyperbole

• simile

Answer explanation

Their love is being compared to an autumn leaf using "like."

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D

Symbol or metaphor?

"I am of one element, Levity my matter, Like enough a withered leaf / For the winds to scatter."

• symbol

• metaphor

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.L.7.5

CCSS.L.8.5

What is being personified?

"Time crawled when Bella was doing her homework."

• Bella.

• Homework.

• Crawled.

• Time.

Tags

CCSS.L.6.5A

Grand Calloway Station got its name from so many people coming and going at all hours of the night, just like Grand Central Station. This is an example of what type of figurative language?

• Onomatopoeia

• hyperbole

• personification

• alliteration

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

CCSS.RL.7.4

A reference to a famous event/person/thing in a different work of literature

• alliteration

• allusion

• hyperbole

• imagery

Tags

CCSS.L.7.5A

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

What literary device is being used in this example:

"When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears"

• Simile

• Metaphor

• Personification

• Hyperbole

Answer explanation

Stars don't have spears or tears. Those are human qualities given to non-human things, which is personification.

Tags

CCSS.L.3.5A

CCSS.RL.3.4

What literary device is being used in this example:

"I do not care to talk to you although

Your speech evokes a thousand sympathies,"

• hyperbole

• Simile

• pun

• analogy

Answer explanation

To speaker is exaggerating the number of sympathies given.

Tags

CCSS.L.4.5A

CCSS.L.5.5A

CCSS.RL.5.4

CCSS.W.11-12.2D