1. Simile —a comparison that says that one thing is like another; a simile contains the word “like” or “as.”

2. Simile “Love that dog, like a bird loves to fly.” (86)

3. Metaphor —a comparison that suggests that one thing is the same as another; metaphors often use a being verb, like “is” or “was,” to equate the two things.

4. Metaphor “I didn’t know about the spell-checking thing inside the computer. It is like a miracle little brain in there a little helper brain.” (67)

5. Personification — giving human characteristics to something that is not human

6. Personification “I don’t want to write about that blue car that had miles to go before it slept, so many miles in such a hurry.” (7)

7. Refrain —a repeated line in a poem or song

8. Refrain “I'm going out to clean the pasture spring; I'll only stop to rake the leaves away (And wait to watch the water clear, I may): I shan't be gone long. -- You come too. I'm going out to fetch the little calf That's standing by the mother. It's so young, It totters when she licks it with her tongue. I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.” (The Pasture)

9. Repetition —when a word or phrase is used repeatedly (over and over) throughout poem or stanza

10. Repetition “I am going to ask you and I want you to know that’s okay because our teacher says writers are very very very very busy trying to write their words and the phone is ringing and the fax is going and the bills need paying and sometimes they get sick ”(55-56)

11. Hyperbole —an exaggeration or overstatement

12. Hyperbole “I tried. Can’t do it. Brain’s Empty.” (2)

13. Idiom —an expression or group of words that can not be taken literally; the phrase has a different meaning

14. Idiom Raining cats and dogs. Meaner than a junk yard dog. Sick as a dog. To be thrown to the dogs.