Figurative Language: Use of Figures of Speech

Simile: A comparison using “like” or “as”

· “Easter Wings” (779): Line 8: As larks

Metaphor: An indirect comparison

· "The Road Not Taken" (1011): Road

· “Not waving but Drowning” (766): Ocean; Drowning

· “Eating Alone” (814): Garden; Onions

Personification: Giving human characteristics to something inanimate, animal, or abstract

· "I Said to Poetry": 759

Apostrophe: Addressing an inanimate/abstract thing

· “Death be not Proud”: 827

Paradox: Statement that seems like it can’t be true but is

· “Much Madness is Divinest Sense” (984): Line 1

· “Love’s Inconsistency” (827): Final Line

· “Easter Wings” (779): Lines 10 and 20

Oxymoron: A statement that contradicts itself

· “Richard Cory”: Imperially Slim; Quietly Arrayed

Hyperbole: A great exaggeration

· “Love’s Inconsistency” (827): I burn and freeze

Understatement: Downplaying how significant a thing is

· “The Man He Killed”: "quaint and curious war is"