English resources/Literary devices/Figurative
Figurative language
A thing called another thing. A comparison with like. A thing doing a human verb. Too big on purpose. A picture.
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Give them one quote. Ask: is it like, or is it is.
The devices
Metaphor
A thing is called another thing. No "like". No "as".
Ambition is a horse that jumps too far: Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself. Life is a bad actor, then a short candle: Out, out, brief candle.
Simile
A comparison that uses like or as.
Dickens: Scrooge is Hard and sharp as flint. Shakespeare: the crown sits like a giant's robe Upon a dwarfish thief.
Personification
A thing does a human verb.
Sleep can be murdered: Macbeth does murder sleep. A day can creep: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps. Blood can want more blood: blood will have blood.
Hyperbole
Too big on purpose.
The whole sea cannot wash his hands: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood. No perfume in Arabia can hide hers: All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
Imagery
A picture you can see, smell, or touch.
She still sees the blood. She still smells it. Out, damned spot, out, I say!
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