Poetry

Mr. Hart
More Examples of Figurative Language

To See a World in a Grain of Sand

By William Blake (about 1803)

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.

1. How many examples of figurative language can you find? What figures of speech are
being used?

2. What is the point he is trying to convey – and how does his choice of figurative language
help that?

Metaphors
By Sylvia Plath (1960)

I’m a riddle in nine syllables,

An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

1. What is being described here? What are the metaphors referring to? What do the
metaphors have in common?

2. In the first line, what has the speaker in common with the riddle?
Leaving Forever
By Denise Levertov (1964)

He says the waves in the ship’s wake

Are like stones rolling away.
I don’t see it that way.
But I see the mountain turning,
Turning away its face as the ship
Takes us away.
1. What are the man’s feelings about leaving forever? How does the speaker feel?

2. What is the tone of the poem? How does Levertov’s word choice affect the tone?

The Silken Tent

By Robert Frost (1942)

She is as in a field a silken tent

At midday when a sunny summer breeze
Has dried the dew and all its ropes relent,
So that the guys* it gently sways at ease, * - attachments that steady it
And its supporting central cedar pole,
That is its pinnacle to heavenward
And signifies the sureness of the soul,
Seems to owe naught to any single cord,
But strictly held by none, is loosely bound
By countless silken ties of love and thought
To everything on earth the compass round,
And only by one’s going slightly taut
In the capriciousness of summer air
Is of the slightest bondage made aware.

1. What is Frost comparing the tent to?

2. What are the ropes or cords?

3. What is Frost trying to say in this poem?