Figurative Language

Step One: Read the poem, "The Hound" and answer the following questions.

Metaphor: a direct comparison made between two unlike things. 

The Hound

Life the hound
Equivocal                    (open to more than one interpretation)
Comes at a bound
Either to rend me        (to pull something apart violently)
Or to befriend me.
I cannot tell
The hounds intent
Til he has sprung
At my bare hand
With teeth or tongue    (does the hound approach in a violent way or friendly way)
Meanwhile I stand
And wait the event.

Robert Francis (1901-1987)

Activity:

1. What is life compared to?
2. How is life (a hound) equivocal?  What does this mean?
3. Explain what the extended metaphor in this poem means.
4. What is the action the speaker takes?  What is he able to do?

Step Two: Read the definition of personification.  Complete the activity following the poem.

Personification: giving the attributes of a human being to an animal, an object or a concept.  It is a subtype of metaphor, an implied comparison in which the figurative term of the comparison is always a human being.

The poem, "Mirror"(p. 5) uses personification when the poet gives the mirror the ability to speak and think.

Activity:


1. Find a poem that uses a good example of personification.  Copy the poem. You may either use your text book or you may use online resources.
2. Explain how the personification makes your poem effective.


Step Three:  Read the poem and complete the activity.

Simile: A comparison of two unlike things which uses the words "like" or "as."

Getting Through

Like a car stuck in gear,
a chicken too stupid to tell
it's head is gone,
or sound ratcheting on
long after the film
has jumped the reel,
or a phone
ringing and ringing
in the house they have all
moved away from,
through rooms where dust
is a deepening skin,
and the locks unneeded,
so I go on loving you,
my heart blundering on,
a muscle spilling out
what is no longer wanted,
and my words hurtling past,
like a train off its track,
toward a boarded up station,
closed for years,
like some last speaker
of a beautiful language
no one else can hear.

Deborah Pope

Activity:
1. Create a list of the similies used to describe the poet's emotions. 
2. What do all of these comparisons have in common?  What do they mean?
3. Paraphrase the poem (explain what the poem is about in your own words). Use full sentences.