Chapter 5-- Figurative Language I

Chapter 5-Figurative
Language I
Perrine’s Structure, Sound, and
Sense
Coach Adams
Fall 2006
What is it?
• Figurative language is a means of
saying something other than, more
than, or less than what you actually say.
• “It’s pouring out there…”
• actually, it’s not…millions of tiny drops
are falling simultaneously, but nothing
about rain is anything like pouring water
out of a cup…get it?
Metaphor and simile
• A metaphor describes something as if it
were something else
• a simile compares (like, as, seems like,
looks as though)
• “The guitarist tunes up” and “The
hound” on page 581-2. Which uses
which?
Four types of comparison
• Literal named, figurative named (“It’s
raining out there like Noah’s flood.”)
• literal named, figurative implied (“It’s
raining like God’s girlfriend broke up
with him.”)
• literal implied, figurative named
• literal implied, figurative implied
• come up with examples for the two
above from the following poems
•
•
•
•
“Bereft,” 582
2, 3-5
“It sifts from leaden sieves,” 583
1-2
personification
• Giving human attributes to a nonhuman
entity
• look back at “The Guitarist tunes up.”
• Guitars don’t speak.
• Apostrophe--addressing either a nonpresent person or a non-human object.
• “Western Wind,” 385
• Explain the situation.
Some more:
• Synecdoche: identifying a part to mean
the whole (“My ears did not like the lines
she uttered.”)
• Give examples
• Metonymy: stating something related
instead of the thing actually meant
(“Today the White House issued a press
release denying the accusations of…”)
• examples p. 586
Why use figurative language?
• Our brains enjoy solving little puzzles
• Gives our language a little extra “zip.”
– compare “We scored a lot early” to “We
pounced on them in the first inning like an
angry puma.”
• Allows individual tastes and creations
• Adds emotion to literature
• Allows for concentration of information
(“Out, out, brief candle!”
Exercise
• Page 588.
• Do this in pairs. Feel free to argue.
The poems
• “I felt a funeral,” 589:1-3
• “Metaphors,” 590: 1
• “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,”
592: 1, 2-4
• “To his coy mistress,” 593: 1-3, 5-7
• “Go, Lovely Rose,” 595: 1-3
• “Names of horses,” 597: 1-2
• “Dream Deferred,” 598: 1-2
• page 598, exercise 2: essay

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