Figurative Languages

By: Mark Christian R. Catapang

 Rhetorical Question
• Poetic questions used in literary works

• E.g.
“Should old acquaintance be forget and
never brought to mind…?” – Auld Lang Syne
 Repetition
• literary device that repeats the
same words or phrases a few times
• E.g.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you
tomorrow…”
 Simile
• figure of speech that says that one thing is like
another different thing. We can use similes to make
descriptions more emphatic or vivid.
• We often use the words as...as and like with
similes.
e.g.
“The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.-
I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen Spender
• “It's been a hard day's night, and I've been
working like a dog.” - The Beatles

• His skin was as cold as ice.

It felt as hard as rock.
She looked as gentle as a lamb.

something [is*] LIKE something

My love is like a red, red rose.
These cookies taste like garbage.
He had a temper (that was) like a volcano.
 Metaphor
• figure of speech that says that one thing is
another different thing. This allows us to
use fewer words and forces the reader or
listener to find the similarities.
• The word metaphor comes from the Greek
word metapherin (meaning "transfer").
• -it is a direct comparison
 e.g.
“Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire.” –
I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen Spender

“A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,

Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?”
- The Man with a Hoe, Edwin Markham
“Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop…”
- The Man with a Hoe, Edwin Markham
America is a melting pot.
 Hyperbole
• figure of speech that uses an exaggerated or
extravagant statement to create a strong
emotional response.
e.g.
“Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
Then another thousand, then a second
hundred,
Then still another thousand, then a hundred…”
-Catullus
• “The essential delight of the blood drawn from
ageless springs,
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth.” -
-I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen Spender
“And on his back, the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair…”
-The Man with a Hoe, Edwin Markham
“The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.”
- I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen Spender
“BOWED by the weight of centuries he
leans upon his hoe and gazes on the
ground…” – The Man with the Hoe, Edwin Markham
 Personification
• he attribution of a personal nature or
human characteristics to something
nonhuman, or the representation of an
abstract quality in human form.
e.g.
“See how these names are feted by the waving
grass and by the streamers of white cloud
And whispers of wind in the listening sky.”
-I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen
Spender
• “Through corridors of light where the hours are
suns endless and singing.”
-I Think Continually of Those who were Truly Great, Stephen Spender
Activity