Figurative Language Examples in Poetry

Figurative language is a big part of how poets express themselves. It's like when you add extra meaning and beauty to your words, just as you might add more colors to a painting or more flavors to a dish. 

When you're getting ready for a Reading Comprehension Test, it's important to look closely at the details of figurative language in poetry. This helps you truly understand what the poets are saying. 

Below are lists of the figurative language, each one giving you a special way to see and enjoy the craft of poetry.

1. Simile

A simile involves a comparison using 'like' or 'as' to enhance description, allowing for vivid and relatable imagery in language.

Example: "She was as sweet as pie."

In her poem "A Lady," Amy Lowell vividly describes a woman using similes.

"You are beautiful and faded

Like an old opera tune

Played upon a harpsichord;

Or like the sun-flooded silks

Of an eighteenth-century boudoir. "

2. Metaphor

Metaphor involves making a direct comparison without the use of "like" or "as."

Example: "The world is your oyster."

The poem "Dreams" by Langston Hughes uses metaphors. In the lines:

Hold fast to dreams 

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

The poet metaphorically compares life to a broken-winged bird and a barren field frozen with snow, suggesting that the absence or loss of dreams renders life constrained, desolate and devoid of vitality.

3. Personification

Personification entails attributing human characteristics to nonhuman entities.

Example: "The wind howled."

In "Because I could not stop for Death," Emily Dickinson personifies death as a courteous driver:

"Because I could not stop for Death – / He kindly stopped for me."

Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

4. Hyperbole

Hyperbole involves using exaggeration for emphasis.

Example: "She talks a mile a minute."

In the poem "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, the poet uses hyperbole in this excerpt to exaggerate the duration of his love, claiming that he would love the mistress ten years before the biblical Flood. 

This use of an exaggerated and unrealistic timeframe showcases the poet's intentional use of hyperbole for poetic effect.

Of Humber would complain. I would

Love you ten years before the flood,

And you should, if you please, refuse

Till the conversion of the Jews.

5. Consonance

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds.

Example: "She sells seashells by the seashore."

Edgar Allan Poe uses consonance in "The Raven"

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

6. Assonance

Assonance involves the repetition of vowel sounds.

Example: "Light my fire."

In the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, the poet uses assonance by repeating the long "i" sound in words like "sky" and "like" within these lines. This repetition of vowel sounds enhances the musical and smooth quality of the verse.

Let us go then, you and I,

When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patient etherized upon a table

7. Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia refers to words that imitate the sounds they describe.

In "The Bells," Edgar Allan Poe employs onomatopoeia in the line 

"How they clang, and clash, and roar!" 

The words "clang," "clash," and "roar" are onomatopoeic, mimicking the actual sounds they describe—contributing to the poem's auditory richness and providing readers with an immersive experience.

8. Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of initial consonant sounds.

Example: "Lilly looks lovely looking at lightning."

William Shakespeare frequently incorporated alliteration into his writings. While numerous instances can be found in his plays like "Romeo and Juliet," his poetry also showcases the deliberate use of alliteration. 

Take, for instance, "Sonnet 5," where the repetitive "b" sound in words like beauty, barenes and bereft creates a romantic ambiance. Additionally, in the final line, the repeated "s" sound in substance and sweet contributes to a tranquil rhythm.

"Beauty o'er-snowed and bareness every where:

Then were not summer's distillation left,

A liquid prisoner pent in walls of glass,

Beauty's effect with beauty were bereft,

Nor it, nor no remembrance what it was:

But flowers distilled, though they with winter meet,

Leese but their show; their substance still lives sweet."

Final Words

Now you are familiar with or have reviewed the different figurative languages used in texts like poems. We hope that it helps you as you approach the reading comprehension test. If you want more comprehensive materials to help, feel free to explore both free and paid resources on this site.

Good luck!