Poetry TermsEnglish 9 Honors

A comparison using “like” or “as”

Examples: Our soldiers are as brave as

lions. Her cheeks are red like a rose. He is as funny as a monkey. The well was as dry as a bone. He is as cunning as a fox.

Simile

Comparing two unlike things (without using “like” or “as.”

Metaphor

Sometimes an entire poem (or a piece of it) can be considered a metaphor: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference

Example: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

A description that appeals to our physical sense.

It was dark and dim in the forest. – The words “dark” and “dim” are visual images.

The children were screaming and shouting in the fields. - “Screaming” and “shouting” appeal to our sense of hearing or auditory sense.

He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee. – “whiff” and “aroma” evoke our sense of smell or olfactory sense.

The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric. – The idea of “soft” in this example appeals to our sense of touch or tactile sense.

The fresh and juicy orange are very cold and sweet. – “ juicy” and “sweet” when associated with oranges have an effect on our sense of taste or gustatory sense.

Imagery

A figure of speech in which a thing, idea or animal is given human characteristics.

Examples: Look at my car. She is a beauty, isn’t it so? The wind whispered through dry grass. The flowers danced in the gentle breeze. Time and tide waits for none. The fire swallowed the entire forest.

Personification

An exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis

Examples: I am dying of shame. I am trying to solve a million issues these days. I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you

Till China and Africa meet,And the river jumps over the mountainAnd the salmon sing in the street,I’ll love you till the oceanIs folded and hung up to dry

Hyperbole

A brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of historical, cultural, literary or political significance.

Examples:

“Don’t act like a Romeo in front of her.” – “Romeo” is a reference to Shakespeare’s Romeo, a passionate lover of Juliet,

in “Romeo and Juliet”. The rise in poverty will unlock the Pandora’s box of crimes.

– This is an allusion to one of Greek Mythology’s origin myth, “Pandora’s box”. “Hey! Guess who the new Newton of our school is?”

– “Newton”, means a genius student, alludes to a famous scientist Isaac Newton.

“Stop acting like my ex-husband please.” – Apart from scholarly allusions we refer to common people and places in our

speech.

Allusion

A figure of speech in which two opposite ideas are joined to create an effect. 

Example: “Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!O anything, of nothing first create!O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!This love feel I, that feel no love in this.Dost thou not laugh?”

Oxymoron

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