Amicitia American School FesEnglish Literature Class

Fall 2015

Chapter 2: Poetry and Metaphorical Language/ Literary Devices

Mrs. Yasmina El Fethouni Snoussi

By the end of this chapter students will be able to:

• Read and analyze poems• Understand literary devices• Identify some literary devices used in poems• Identify metaphorical language as literary device• Compose poems of their own

Poem

• a composition in verse, especially one that is characterized by a highly developed artistic form and by the use of heightened language and rhythm to express an intensely imaginative interpretation of the subject (Dictionary.com,2015).

Literary Devices

• Literary Devices refers to the typical structures used by writers in their works to convey his or her messages in a simple manner to the readers. When employed properly, the different literary devices help readers to appreciate, interpret and analyze a literary work (Literary Devices, 2015).

Literary Devices

• Analogy: comparison in which an idea or a thing is compared to another thing that is quite different from it.

Ex: “Structure of an atom is like a solar system. Nucleus is the sun and electrons are the planets revolving around their sun.”

Literary Devices

• A biography is simply a bio that gives an account or detailed description about the life of a person. It entails basic facts such as childhood, education, career, relationships, family and death.

Literary Devices• Critique is a literary technique that means to critically evaluate a piece of literary

work, a political or philosophical theory in detail. Ex: In his book, Hamlet: Poem Unlimited, Harold Bloom declares William Shakespeare’s Hamlet as “unlimited” comes “of no genre,” because its greatness is like “it competes only with the world’s scriptures.” This amazing significance cannot emerge from a work, which is about tendentious and politicized things. Bloom abandons the idea that Hamlet’s double shock of his father’s death and his mother’s second marriage has brought a drastic change in Hamlet. The truth, however, is “Something in Hamlet dies before the play opens.” In fact, the theme or central idea of this play is “Hamlet’s consciousness of his own consciousness, unlimited yet at war with itself.” Thus, the play is about awakening of self-consciousness, and Hamlet fights with “his desire to come to an end of playacting.”

Literary Devices

• Comedy is a literary genre and a type of dramatic work that is amusing and satirical in its tone, mostly having cheerful ending.

• Drama is a mode of fictional representation through dialogue and performance. It is one of the literary genres, which is an imitation of some action. Drama is also a type of a play written for theaters, televisions, radios and films. In simple words, a drama is a composition in verse or prose presenting a story in pantomime or dialogue, containing conflict of characters, particularly the ones who perform in front of audience on the stage.

Literary Devices

• Irony is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning of the words.

• Narrative is a report of related events presented to the listeners or readers in words arranged in a logical sequence.

• Tragedy is kind of drama that presents a serious subject matter about human suffering and corresponding terrible events in a dignified manner.

Literary Devices in Poetry

• Argumentation: An argument is the main statement of a poem, an essay, a short story, or a novel that usually appears as an introduction or a point on which the writer will develop his work in order to convince his readers.

Ex: “Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the FruitOf that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tasteBrought Death into the World, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful Seat,” (Milton)

Literary Devices in Poetry

• Metaphor is a figure of speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things or objects that are poles apart from each other but have some characteristics common between them. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.

Metaphorical Language

• Metaphor: something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol (Dictionary.com,2015).

• A figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (Merriam Webster, 2015).

Metaphorical Language

• when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically. “He is the black sheep of the family” is a metaphor because 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.

Metaphorical Language

Examples:• Knowledge gave light to my life• Education brought me from darkness to light• You are the sun of my life• My heart is broken into million pieces

References

• LiteraryDevices.net, 2015• Dictionary.com,2015