a comparison of two things using like or

asHis feet are as big as boats.

His feet are like boats.

WARNING:

(1) A rookie mistake that beginning writers often make: they'll draw a relationship between two unlike things and move on, daring us to take them at their word(s):

"love is like a faucet”

The simile needs a qualifying phrase or a parallel idea. "love is like a faucet / it turns off and on”

Billie Holliday

(2) Oftentimes, a simile is bad because it compares something we might be able to visualize with something we might not be able to visualize.

“Dreams Deferred”by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore--And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.Or does it explode?

A list of some of the worst high school

similes…

…ever.

extreme exaggeration for

emphasis.She ran faster than the speed of light.He is a hairy beast.

“To His Coy Mistress”By Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. We would sit down and think which way To walk and pass our long love's day.…My vegetable love should growVaster than empires, and more slow;An hundred years should go to praiseThine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;…

repetition of the first letter or sound; Writers

may use alliteration to give writing a musical quality.

Callie quickly corrected her overturned kayak on Lake

Conroe.

compare two things without using like or as; instead, say

one thing is anotherMy fingers

were icicles.

give human qualities to an animal, object, or idea

The lightning

struck out with anger.

“Fog”by Carl Sandburg

The FOG comeson little cat feet.It sits lookingover harbor and cityon silent haunchesand then moves on.

sound effect words~~like buzz, pop, meow, drip

The pizza sizzled as it came

out of the oven.

“The Great Figure”William Carlos Williams

Among the rain and lights I saw the figure 5 in gold on a red firetruck moving tense unheeded to gong clangs siren howls and wheels rumbling through the dark city.

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?

Only the monstrous anger of the guns.

Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle

Can patter out their hasty orisons.

No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;

Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,

–The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;

And bugles7 calling for them from sad shires…

From “Anthem for Doomed Youth”Wilfred Owen

two words or phrases that contradict

Who ordered the

‘jumbo shrimp’?

A. sound effect wordsB. compare two things without

like or as; one thing is another.

C. give a human qualities to an animal, object, or idea.

D. Repetition of soundsE. comparison of two things

using like or as.F. two words that contradictG. extreme exaggeration for

emphasis.

WORD BANK:SimileHyperboleAlliterationMetaphorPersonificationOnomatopoeiaOxymoron

Figurative Language Matching

Sonnet 16 by ShakespeareShall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 5And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; 10Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Sonnet 16 by Shakespeare• Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? A

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: BRough winds do shake the darling buds of May, AAnd summer’s lease hath all too short a date: BSometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C 5And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; DAnd every fair from fair sometime declines, CBy chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; DBut thy eternal summer shall not fade ENor lose possession of that fair thou owest; F 10Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, EWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest: FSo long as men can breathe or eyes can see, GSo long lives this and this gives life to thee. G

SOUND DEVICE: ASSONANCE

- repetition of VOWEL SOUNDS at the BEGINNING, MIDDLE or END of at least two words in a line of poetry.

SOUND DEVICE: CONSONANCE

- repetition of CONSONANT SOUNDS at the BEGINNING, MIDDLE or END of at least two words in a line of poetry.

Assonance vs. Consonance

Examples of Assonance• Repeating the “eh” sound in the words:

“crescent,” “flesh,” “extending,” “medicine” and “death”

Examples of ConsonanceRepeating the “sh” sound in the words:

“shush,” “wish,” “sharp,” “cushion” and “quash”

Putting it Together!• Go to:

II, ii, 169-201And find an example of each

part of SHAMPOO. Then, write down WHY this example

is being used.