1. “ I DIDN’T LITERALLY MEAN THAT; IT WAS FIGURATIVE.”
Figurative Language
“ I DIDN’T LITERALLY MEAN THAT; IT WAS FIGURATIVE.”

2. Daffodils by Wordsworth
Simile vs. Metaphor
Simile
Metaphor
Definition: a comparison between two UNLIKE things using “like” or “as”
Definition: a comparison between two UNLIKE things
Example: “He is the black sheep of the family.”
Explanation: He is not a sheep and is not even black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal and typically stays away from the herd, and the person you are describing shares similar characteristics.
Daffodils by Wordsworth
“I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills.”
Explanation: The poet envisions himself as a free lone cloud that floats in a blue sky above valleys and the mountains. By choosing this simile, Wordsworth describes his loneliness.

3. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Personification
Definition: a thing or idea is given human attributes
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
“When well-appareled April on the heel
Of limping winter treads.”
Explanation: There are two personification examples here. April cannot put on a dress, and winter does not limp and it does not have a heel on which a month can walk. Shakespeare personifies the month of April and the winter season by giving them two distinct human qualities.

4. Onomatopoeia
Definition: a word that imitates the natural sound of a thing
Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
“He saw nothing and heard nothing but he could feel his heart pounding and then he heard the clack on stone and the leaping, dropping clicks of a small rock falling.”
Explanation: Click and clack are natural sounds that can help you imagine a rock falling.
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
“Hark, hark!
Bow-wow.
The watch-dogs bark!
Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, ‘cock-a-diddle-dow!'”
Explanation: Bow-wow is an actual sound that is written out. It helps you to envision the sound the dog is making when he barks.

5. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Oxymoron
Definition: two opposite ideas are joined together to create an effect
Explanation: We notice a series of oxymoron being employed when Romeo confronts the love of an inaccessible woman. An intense emotional effect is produced to highlight his mental conflict by the use of contradictory pairs of words such as “hating love”, “heavy lightness”, “bright smoke”, “cold fire”, and “sick health”.
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything, of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness! Serious vanity!
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms!
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

6. “As I Walked One Evening” by W.H. Auden
Hyperbole
Definition: an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis
“As I Walked One Evening” by W.H. Auden
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
Explanation: The use of hyperbole can be noticed in the above lines. The meeting of China and Africa, the jumping of the river over the mountain, singing of salmon in the street, and the ocean being folded and hung up to be dried are exaggerations not possible in real life.

7. “Doctor Faustus” by Marlowe
Allusion
Definition: a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing, or idea of historical, cultural, literary, or political significance
“Doctor Faustus” by Marlowe
“Learnèd Faustus, to find the secrets of astronomy
Graven in the book of Jove’s high firmament,
Did mount him up to scale Olympus’ top,
Where, sitting in a chariot burning bright,
Drawn by the strength of yokèd dragons’ necks,
He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars.”
Explanation: Jove’s high firmament refers to the outer stretches of the universe. “Olympus’ top” is an allusion to Greek Mythology where Mount Olympus is home of gods. Similarly, “a chariot burning bright” refers to a Greek Myth of “god Apollo” who is said to drive the sun in his chariot.

8. Idiom
Definition: a set expression or phrase comprising of two or more words. It is not a literal representation, but it is supposed to be interpreted differently from what the original words or phrase implies.
Explanation: “I worked the graveyard shift with old people, which was really demoralizing, because the old people didn’t have a chance of ever getting out.”
Explanation: The statement quoted above uses “graveyard shift” as an idiom which means the late shift.
Example: “Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.”
Explanation: The statement quoted above uses “silver lining” as an idiom which means some auspicious moment is lurking behind the cloud or the difficult time.

9. “To the Autumn” by John Keats
Imagery
Definition: using figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas, in a way that it appeals to our physical senses.
“To the Autumn” by John Keats
“Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.”
Explanation: The animal sounds in the above excerpt keep appealing to our sense of hearing. We hear the lamb bleating and the crickets chirping. We hear the whistles of the redbreast robin and the twitters of swallows in the sing. Keats call these sounds as the song of autumn.

10. As you Like It by William Shakespeare
Symbolism
Definition: the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense.
Explanation: The above lines are symbolic of the fact that men and women, in course of their life perform different roles. “A stage” here symbolizes the world and “players” is a symbol for human beings.
As you Like It by William Shakespeare
“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
they have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,”

11. Alliteration “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
Definition: uses words with the same first consonant sounds that occur close together in a series.
“The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary ;
rare and radiant maiden;
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain…
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.