Workshop #5 Lesson

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: SIMILES AND METAPHORS
Figurative language: Language that is used imaginatively to carry ideas and feelings that otherwise might be difficult to put into words. Language that means more than what is literally stated.
Metaphor: A metaphor is a brief, compressed comparison that talks about one thing as if it were another. The comparison is implied. It comes to the poem unannounced, without the words like or as to signal that something is not literal.
Simile: Similar to metaphor, a brief, compressed imaginative comparison. Unlike the metaphor, a simile uses the words "like" "as" or "as if" to advertise that a comparison will follow. ________________________________________________________
Exercise #1 Decide whether each sentence contains a simile or a metaphor. Ask yourself what is being compared to what?
1) The baby was like an octopus, grabbing at all the cans on the grocery store shelves
2) As the teacher entered the room she muttered under her breath, "This class is like a three ring circus!"
3) The giant's steps were thunder as he ran towards me.
4) The pillow was a cloud when I put my head upon it after a long day.
5) I feel like a limp dishrag.
6) The florescent light was the sun during our test.
7) No one invited Kareem to parties because he's as much fun as a broken umbrella.
8) The bar of soap was a slippery eel during my little brother's bath.
9) Maria was as nervous as a cat with a long tail in a room full of rocking chairs.
Simile Exercises:
Finish The Sentence:
Fill in the blanks as rapidly as you can. Do not think. Write. If you have no reflex response, go on to the next sentence, and come back to that one later.
1. A lady sitting on a stoop is like _________________
2. The kids in the playground moved as if ________________________
3. A woman in __________ is like a __________ in _________
4. Love is more like _________ than it is like ___________
5. A man in ____________ is like a ______________ in ______________
6. He spoke as if he was a __________________
7. Truth is as hard to obtain as _____________ and as easy to lose as ___________

Metaphor Exercises
Bantu: In Africa, the people of the Bantu tribe developed an oral tradition in which they did this. They created two line poems in the rhythm of their work. The first line was an image spoken by one person and the second line an "answering" or corresponding image spoken by a second person. As reported in a book entitled TECHNICIANS OF THE SACRED, one person could say, "The voice of an angry man" and a second person answer, "The sound of an elephant's tusk cracking."
Here are some two-line Bantu as examples:
The straps of my Birkenstock sandals/ Two highway overpasses
Smell of fresh baked bread/ Clothes just out of the dryer
Wind through the grass/ My husband rustles the Sunday Times
Cornflakes in my bowl/ Little dolphins swimming

You get the idea. Create a first line with images from what is around you: A space between two parked cars, the blinds on the living room window, rose bushes along the fence, boys playing soccer, cars stuck in traffic, the sound of a trumpet, etc. Then go back and find second lines that seem to evoke a fresh experience of the first line image.
Here is what we came up with:
A pizza fresh out of the oven/ New shoes right out of the box
Dead flys stuck in a light/ Stagnant pond water
The scratching of the 'critter' in the attic/ Ocean waves crashing on the dry beach
My squished toes in new toe shoes/ The bulky man sitting in the next seat over
The constant blinking of the smoke alarm/ My sister's mouth at dinnertime
Bag-A-Bug, filled with Japanese beetle in July/ My stomach after visiting the all-you-can-eat buffet at the the Chinese restaurant
Answers to Exercise #1
1) simile - baby was like an octopus
2) simile - class was like a three ring circus
3) metaphor - giant's steps-=thunder
4) metaphor - pillow=cloud
5) simile - I feel like a limp dishrag
6) metaphor - flourescent lights=sun
7) simile - Kareem as much fun as a broken umbrella
8)metaphor - bar of soap=slippery eel
9) simile - Maria was as nervous as a cat
Examples of answers from the simile exercise
A lady sitting on a stoop is like a bird in the sky that sees everything
A woman in tears is like an oceanliner in a pond
A man in a tuxedo is like a cat in water
He spoke as if he were a politician on election night
Truth is as hard to obtain as mangos in Willimantic and as easy to lose as your first love.

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