1. Poetry:
Figurative Language
Kristi Fischer
Flandreau Middle School

2. Types of Figurative Language
often used in Poetry:
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia

3. Simile
• An implied
comparison
usually using
“like” or “as”

4. Simile
• Life is like a
box of
chocolates; you
never know
what you’re
going to get.

5. Simile
• He ran down
the field like a
freight train.

6. Simile
• She was as
quiet as a
mouse.

7. Metaphor
• The process of
describing one
thing as if it
were another.
• Does not use “like”
or “as”

8. Metaphor
• Our project is
almost finished.
I can see the
light at the end
of the tunnel.

9. Metaphor
• He had
butterflies in his
stomach.

10. Metaphor
• He carried the
weight of the
world on his
shoulders.

11. Personification
• A figure of
speech in
which a thing,
quality, or
idea is
represented
as a person.

12. Personification
• The sun peeked
over the
mountain tops.

13. Personification
• One lonely slice
of pizza
remained.

14. Personification
• After a long day
of work, the
swimming pool
was calling my
name.

15. Alliteration
• The repetition of
the same sound
at the beginning
of two or more
closely
associated words.

16. Alliteration
• Like loads of
laundry lying on
the lovely
linoleum.

17. Alliteration
• Sally sells
seashells by the
seashore.

18. Alliteration
• Those creepy
crawly critters
caused a cramp
in my cranium.

19. Onomatopoeia
• A word that
imitates the
sound it
represents.

20. Onomatopoeia
• The water
gurgled as it
flowed down
the drain.

21. Onomatopoeia
• The storm
clouds rumbled
across the sky.

22. Onomatopoeia
• It seemed
everyone was
sniffling during
the cold and flu
season.

23. Types of Figurative Language
• Simile
• Metaphor
• Personification
• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia