FIGURATIVE LANGUAGENot literal, the language behind the language

Simile

A figure of speech in which one thing is explicitly compared to another using the word “like” or “as” (OED)

Example: Suzie is quiet as a mouse and tall as a giraffe

Example

Suzie is quiet as a mouse

Two things being compared

Suzie Mouse

Characteristic(s) being compared

Quiet,

Suzie is tall as a giraffe

Similes in Pop Culture

love, like blood, is pouring out of me Counting Crows

Two things being compared

Characteristic(s) being compared

Love Blood

Similes in Pop Culture

All eyes on me in the center of the ringJust like a circus

When I crack that whip, everybody gon' trip

Just like a circusEverybody let go, we can make a dancefloor

Just like a circus

Click Me!

Similes in Pop Culture

Thank God the week is done/I feel like a zombie gone back to life

Usher

Two things being compared

Characteristic(s) being compared

Similes in Pop Culture

Between the absence of Hagrid and the presence of those dragonish horses, he had felt that his return to Hogwarts, so long anticipated, was full of unexpected surprises like jarring notes in a familiar song.

Metaphor

A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance (OED)

A comparison between two unlike things not using “like” or “as”

Example: Lisa was a hippo compared to her ant of a sister

Example

Lisa was a hippo

Two things being compared

Lisa Hippo

Characteristic(s) being compared

Size

Lisa was a hippo compared to her ant of a sister

Metaphors in Pop Culture

A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets

-Titanic

Two things being compared

Characteristic(s) being compared

Woman’s Heart Ocean

Deep

Cause at night the sun in retreat,Made the skyline look like crooked teeth,In the mouth of a man who was devouring, us both.

“Crooked Teeth”

Giving human traits (qualities, feelings,

action, or characteristics) to non-living

objects (things, colors, qualities, or ideas).

Example: The sun winked down at them

Sun is a non-living object;

“wink” is a human action

Personification