FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE I: SIMILE, METAPHOR,

PERSONIFICATION, APOSTROPHE, METONYMY

I.

Figurative language
A. Figurative language is language which says
1. less than what you mean, or
2. more than what you mean, or
3. the opposite of what you mean, or
4. something other than what you mean.
B. We use figurative speech because
1. it communicates our meaning more vividly and
forcefully than literal language
2. it also says more--adds dimension (depth)
C. Definition of Figure of Speech ("trope": general term
for any use of figurative images)
1. General Definition:
a. any way of saying something other than the
normal (literal) way
b. some rhetoreticians have classified as many as
250 different tropes

2. For our purposes:

a. a way of saying one thing and meaning
another (figurative language is language that is
meant not to be taken literally)
b. we will focus on just a few
II. Metaphor and Simile
A. Both are used as a means of comparing things that are
essentially unlike
B. Distinction between the two:
1. Simile is a comparison that is expressed (explicit)
by use of some word or phrase: like, as, than,
similar to, resembles, or seems
2. Metaphor is a comparison that is implied; the
figurative term is substituted for or identified with
the literal term
C. Both metaphor and simile speak of one thing (often an
abstraction) in terms of something else (usually
something concrete and hence sensory). The
comparison stated or implied can be represented as a
kind of equation if we take the equals sign (=) to mean
"resembles." The literal term of the comparison is the
subject the poet is basically concerned with. The
figurative term is the term in which the poet is
"explaining" or picturing his basic subject. Thus

Literal Term

Figurative Term

Often abstract;

Usually concrete;

Unfamiliar to
reader

Familiar to reader

Example: When in Act I, Scene 2 of Shakespeare's

Hamlet, Hamlet says "O God! God! / How weary, stale,
flat and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this
world! / Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden / That
grows to seed," we can explain the metaphor as so:
human
experience
("this world")
defined by
basic physical
drives
Langton Hughes

"an unweeded garden"

Harlem (727)

2. What specific denotation has the word dream?

One of its denotations is a condition or achievement that is
longed for, or an aspiration.
Since the poem does not reveal the contents of the dream,
the poem is general in its implication.
What happens to our understanding of it on learning that its

author was a black American?

The knowledge that the poet was a black American living in
Harlem during the first half of the 20th century helps us
understand that the "dream deferred" is specifically the
hoped for but delayed realization of full and equal
participation of black Americans with whites in the political
and economic freedoms supposedly guaranteed by the
Constitution. The metaphorical comparison of black
frustration to a bomb (metonymically representing a race
riot or even armed revolution) is therefore appropriately
placed in the tic position.

QUESTIONS.
Of the six images, five are similes. Which is a
metaphor? Discussion
Comment on its position and its
effectiveness. Discussion
Simile (like, as,
seems, etc.)
Named Term

Literal

= Figurative
= Named Term

a dream deferred [put off;

postponed]

= a raisin in the sun

drying up (2-3)

a dream deferred [put off;

postponed]

= a sore festering and

then running (4-5)

a dream deferred [put off;

postponed]

= rotten meat stinking (6)

a dream deferred [put off;

postponed]

a dream deferred [put off;

postponed]

a syrupy sweet crusting

and sugaring over ((78)
a heavy load sagging
(9-10)

Metaphor
(comparison
implied)
a dream deferred [put off;
postponed]

a bomb exploding (11)

D. Four forms of metaphor:

We need carefully to observe how the poet treats the
two parts (literal and figurative) of the comparison.
To allow the figurative term to make its full
impression, we need to cooperate with the poet by
perceiving all the implications suggested by it;

we need also to notice how he handles the literal

term.
The distinction in the four forms of metaphor is
whether the literal and figurative terms are respectively
named.
First Form: Both figurative and literal terms are
named
In "The
widow's
Lament in
Springtime"
(693)

Literal
term
named

sorrow

Figurative term named

= yard

Second Form: Literal named and figurative is

implied
In "Harlem"

Literal
term
named
deferred
dream

Figurative term implied

= bomb exploding

Application: Robert Frost, "Bereft"

1

Describe the situation precisely. What time of day

and year is it? Where is the speaker? What is
happening to the weather? Discussion

To what are the leaves in lines 9-10 compared?

Discussion

The word "hissed" (9) is onomatopoetic [use of

words that sound like what they mean] How is its
effect reinforced in the lines following? Discussion

Though lines 9-10 present the clearest example of

the second form of metaphor, there are others. To
what is the wind ("it") compared in line 3? Why is
the door (4) "restive" and what does this do
(figuratively) to the door? To what is the speaker's
"life" compared (15)? Discussion

What is the tone of the poem? How reassuring is

the last line? Discussion
Second
form in
"Bereft"

Literal
named

= figurative (implied)

leaves

= (snake)

Third Form: Literal implied, figurative named

Fourth Form: Literal implied, figurative implied
Application: Emily Dickinson, "It sifts from leaden sieves"
1

This poem consists essentially of a series of

metaphors having the same literal term identified
only as "It." What is "It"? Discussion

In several of these metaphors the figurative term is

named--"alabaster wool" (3), "fleeces" (11),

"celestial veil" (12). Most of these are metaphors of
the third form in which only the figurative term is
named. In two of them, however, the figurative
term as well as the literal term is left unnamed
(metaphors of the fourth form). To what is "It"
compared in lines 1-2? In lines 17-18? Discussion
3

Comment on the additional metaphorical

expressions or complications contained in "leaden
sieves" (1), "alabaster wool" (3), "even face" (5),
"unbroken forehead" (7), "a summer's empty room"
(14), "artisans" (19). Discussion
Third
Form
metaphors
in "It Sifts
from
Leaden
Sieves"

Fourth
Form
metaphors
in "It Sifts
from
Leaden

literal
(implied)

figurative named

(2) It
(snow)

= alabaster wool

(11)
(snow)

= fleeces

(12)
(snow)

= celestial veil

Literal
(implied)

figurative (implied)

(1-2)
(snow)

= (flour) falling from

leaden sieves

(17-18)

= (lace or cloth) around

(snow)

the wrist and ankles

Sieves"
E. The fourth form is rare; Emily Dickinson's "I like to see
it lap the miles" (911) is an extended example--a train is
compared to a horse though neither is named:
Literal (implied)

= figurative (implied)

(train)

= (horse)

laps miles and valleys

up;
feeds [takes water]
itself at tanks;
peers [with its headlights] into shanties by
the road;

laps, licks,
feeds, steps,
peers, has ribs, crawls,
complains, chases
itself, neighs,
and stops at a stable

hoots [with its

whistle], is punctual;
and stops at its stable
[station or
roundhouse]
III Personification--giving the attributes of a human to an
animal, object, or concept
A. Actually is a subtype of metaphor: an implied
comparison in which the vehicle/ figurative term is a
human

B. Examples:
"Mirror" by Sylvia Plath (692-93)--the mirror
speaks and thinks [object]
"To Autumn" by John Keats (724-25)--describes
autumn as a harvester (season)
C. Difference in degree to which we are asked to actually
visualize the literal term in human form
1

In Keat's comparison, we are asked to make a

complete identification of autumn with a human

In Plath's, though the mirror speaks and thinks, we

continue to visualize it as a mirror

In Frost' "Bereft", the "restive" door remains in

appearance a door tugged by the wind

In Browning's reference to "startled little waves"

barely perceptible, should not think of waves in
human form or having human emotions

*** NOTE: Be sure to pay attention to the comment at the

top of page 732 concerning how various figures of speech
blend into each other
D. Application--Personification in Anne Bradstreet's The
Author to Her Book
Bradstreet's book The Tenth Muse was published in

1650 without her permission.

2

The poem is an extended personification

addressing her book as a child. What similarities
does the speaker find between a child and a book of
poems? What does she plan to do now that her
child has been put on public display? Discussion

3. Trace the developing attitudes of the speaker

toward the child/book. Why does she instruct the
child to deny it has a father?
Discussion
E. Application--Personification in Maya Angelous The
Telephone

1.

2.

3.

4.

Most home telephones were black before the

innovation of a variety of "designer colors. What
are the connotations of the colors to lines 1-3?
Discussion
Line 4 introduces a simile. Explain how a
telephone might resemble a "spinstered aunt" (5).
What would such an aunt have to do with the
speaker's needs / and need" (6-7)?
Discussion
Beginning in line 8, the simile is developed into a
personification. To what is the telephone
compared? How are its activities a development of
the Aunt" simile? Be sure you understand the
denotation of "tats" and "crocheting (5),
"hemming (12), "darning (14), and "needle
sound" (21). Discussion
How does the last line provide a conclusion to the
poem? Discussion

IV Apostrophe--addressing someone absent, dead, or

something nonhuman as if that person or thing were present
and alive and could reply

A. Examples:
1

In A. E. Houseman's "To an Athlete Dying Young"

(1060), the speaker apostrophizes a dead runner

In William Blake's "The Tiger" (1030), the poet

apostrophizes a tiger

In Keat's "To Autumn" (783), the poet

apostrophizes as well as personifies the season.

B. Personification and apostrophe

1

Give immediacy and life to language

But do not require great imaginative power

(particularly apostrophe) and can be found even in
mediocre and bad poetry

We need to distinguish their effective use and their

merely conventional use

Application: "Bright Star," John Keats

1

The speaker tongs to be as "steadfast" (1) as the

star, yet lines 2-8 express his wish to be unlike the
star in important ways. What are the qualities of the
star that he would not want to emulate? Why would
these be wrong for him in his situation? Discussion

Explore the apparent contradictions in the phrase

"sweet unrest" (12). How do they anticipate the
final line? Discussion

The speaker repeats "still" (13). What relevant

denotations does the word evoke, and how does the
repetition add intensity and meaning to this
apostrophe? Discussion

Why is an apostrophe more effective here than a

description of the star that does not address it?
Discussion

V. Synecdoche (use of part for the whole) and Metonymy

(use of something closely related for the thing actually
meant)
A. Both substitute some significant detail or aspect of an
experience for the experience itself
B. Examples
1

metonymy--Randall (645): "those guns will fire"

subbed for "the police will fire the guns"

In Kay (678), "catalogues of domes" subbed for

enough domed buildings to fill a catalogue

In A. E. Houseman's "Terrence, This Is Stupid

Stuff" (649),
a.

synecdoche: "Malt does more than Milton can /

to justify God's way to man," malt subbed for
beer or ale;

b. metonymy: Look into the pewter pot / to see

the world as the world is not,"

(1) pot subbed for ale

(2) world subbed for human life and the
conditions under which it is lived
4

In Robert Frost's "Out, Out--" (773) metonymy:

held up hand "as if to keep / the life from spilling,"
life subbed for blood

C. Synecdoches and metonymies gain vividness, meaning,

or compactness
D. Dead vs. fresh figures of speech
1

like many other figures, some synecdoches and

metonymies may have become embedded in our
language and no longer strike us as being fresh
"redhead" for red-haired person
"hands" for manual laborers
"tongues" for languages
"dead metaphors" for all dead (trite or stale,
hence not fresh or alive) tropes

Since synecdoche and metonymy are so similar, we

will refer to both figures as Metonymy: any trope
in which a part or something closely related is
substituted for the thing literally meant

VI Summary--figurative language (tropes) is often more

effective than direct literal) language
A. Figurative language affords us imaginative pleasure.
B. Figurative language adds imagery to verse, makes the
abstract concrete, makes poetry more sensusous
C. Figurative language adds emotional intensity to what
is otherwise a merely informative statement and
conveys an attitude along with the statement
D. Figurative language compacts language, says much in
few words
1

Example: excerpt from Macbeth (780) in which

Shakespeare compares life to a candle
a. it begins and ends in darkness
b. while it burns, it gives off light and energy, is
active and colorful
c. it gradually consumes itself, gets shorter and
shorter
d. it can be snuffed out at any moment
e. it is brief at best, burning for only a short
duration

Good use of figurative language is capable of

expressing n compact metaphorical terms certain

truths about life that might require dozens of words

to state in literal terms.
E. When interpreting figurative language, one always risks
misinterpretation, but it is a risk well worth taking, for
the figurative language will provide depth and pleasure
to our understanding poetry
PRACTICE!
Simile
A simile uses the words like or as to compare one object or idea with another to suggest they
are alike.
Example: busy as a bee

Metaphor
The metaphor states a fact or draws a verbal picture by the use of comparison. A simile would
say you are like something; a metaphor is more positive - it says you are something.
Example: You are what you eat.

Personification
A figure of speech in which human characteristics are given to an animal or an object.
Example: My teddy bear gave me a hug.

Alliteration
The repetition of the same initial letter, sound, or group of sounds in a series of words.
Alliteration includes tongue twisters.
Example: She sells seashells by the seashore.

Onomatopoeia
The use of a word to describe or imitate a natural sound or the sound made by an object or an
action.
Example: snap crackle pop

Hyperbole
An exaggeration that is so dramatic that no one would believe the statement is true. Tall tales are
hyperboles.
Example: He was so hungry, he ate that whole cornfield for lunch, stalks and all.

Idioms
According to Webster's Dictionary, an idiom is defined as: peculiar to itself either grammatically
(as no, it wasn't me) or in having a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings
of its elements.
Example: Monday week for "the Monday a week after next Monday"

Clichs
A clich is an expression that has been used so often that it has become trite and sometimes
boring.
Example: Many hands make light work.
SIMILE: An explicit comparison (using like or as): "Her lips are like roses."
METAPHOR: A word or phrase denoting one kind of object or idea used in place of another to
suggest a likeness or analogy between them ("the ship ploughs the sea.") A metaphor is generally
an implicit comparison (doesn't use like or as): "Her lips are roses."
SYNECDOCHE: substituting a part for a whole or a whole for a part. "Fifty sail" for "fifty
ships"; "the smiling year" for spring.
METONYMY: substituting the name of something for its attribute or whatever it is associated
with ("crown" for king).
PERIPHRASIS: substituting a descriptive phrase, made up of a concrete adjective and abstract
noun, for a precise word: "fringed curtains of thine eye" (= eyelashes).
PERSONIFICATION: attributing animation to something inanimate ("a grieving nation");
treating a thing or abstract quality as though it were a person.
OXYMORON: deliberate combination of seemingly contradictory words ("helpful bureaucrat";
"bittersweet").