4.2 Understanding figurative language in poetry
Learn how to:
• recognise figurative techniques
• recognise the effect of figurative techniques.
Why is being able to recognise and analyse figurative language important?
You may be asked specific questions about a word or phrase which require you to tell how a particular word or phrase is used figuratively and the effect created. Poetry is often rich in figurative language. Read the following verses from the poem ‘Laventille’ by Derek Walcott.
Laventille
It huddled there steel tinkling its blue painted metal air, tempered in violence, like Rio’s favelas, with snaking, perilous streets whose edges fell as its Episcopal turkey-buzzards fall from its miraculous hilltop shrine, down the impossible drop to Belmont, Woodbrook, Maraval, St. Clair that shine like peddlers’ tin trinkets in the sun. From a harsh shower, its gutters growled and gargled wash past the Youth Centre, past the water catchment, a rigid children’s carousel of cement; we climbed where lank electric lines and tension cables linked its raw brick hovels like a complex feud, where the inheritors of the middle passage stewed, five to a room, still clamped below their hatch, breeding like felonies
favelas: slums or shanty-towns Episcopal: relating to bishops
Derek Walcott
Belmont, Woodbrook, Maraval, St. Clair: other communities, near Laventille middle passage: the middle stage of the transatlantic slave trade; the sea journey undertaken by enslaved people from West Africa to the West Indies
68 4.2 Understanding figurative language in poetry
Key term
figurative language: words or phrases that prompt ideas or create rich images in the reader’s mind and that are not intended to be taken literally
Building skills
Identifying figurative techniques common in poetry
Walcott uses a number of common figurative techniques, which are described in the table below.
TechniqueDefinition
imagery Language that powerfully evokes the senses, e.g. ‘steel tinkling’.
contrast Ideas created by placing opposing images together, e.g. ‘miraculous hilltop’ and ‘raw brick hovels’ – emphasising the poverty below and the almost heavenly sight above.
simile One thing compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’, e.g. the streets and roofs that ‘shine like peddlers’ tin trinkets in the sun’.
metaphor
A more direct comparison, saying something is something else, e.g. the steel drums of Laventille ‘tempered in violence’ (‘tempered’ means changed or hardened).
extended metaphor
A comparison that is repeated and developed in several ways. Here, Walcott refers to the inhabitants of Laventille being like enslaved people on a ship, trapped and chained. He extends the metaphor later in the poem.
personification
An inanimate object is described with human qualities, e.g. the town ‘huddled’.
symbolism An object or key setting is used consistently to represent a concept or theme. Here, the ‘tin trinkets’ could be seen to represent poverty – people or things that are thin and deemed worthless.
1 Look again at the poem. What sort of technique is being used in the following examples? (Be aware it may be more than one.)
a) ‘snaking, perilous streets’
b) ‘a rigid children’s carousel of cement’
c) ‘like a complex feud’
2 What other powerful or striking images stand out? What effect does each have?
3 The mass of power lines which link the shacks (the ‘hovels’) in which the poor live are described as being ‘like a complex feud’.
A ‘feud’ is a violent, long-lasting quarrel between families or groups of people. Why do you think Walcott has chosen this simile?
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4
Read the following extract from a narrative poem and identify as many figurative techniques as you can.
Kasinath the new young singer fills the hall with sound: The seven notes dance in his throat like seven tame birds. His voice is a sharp sword slicing and thrusting everywhere, It darts like lightning – no knowing where it will go when. He sets deadly traps for himself, then cuts them away: The courtiers listen in amazement, give frequent gasps of praise.
Remember
You can identify a simile easily because the comparison includes the words ‘as’ or ‘like’.
Considering the effect of figurative language
Writers select the words that they use for three main reasons: impact, emotion and sensory appeal.
5 Find the two similes in the poem above.
a) How is the description of a singer given impact by these similes? Are these the images normally associated with beautiful singing? What effect does the word choice have on the reader?
b) What does Tagore want to convey about the singer’s voice? Consider the connotations of the four images created. What kinds of ideas do they bring with them (for example, ‘tame birds’ carries with it the idea of beautiful song, but also captivity and vulnerability)?
c) What emotions does the figurative language create? How does this make you feel about the singer?
6 Using your answers to Item 4, write a short paragraph summarizing your ideas about the overall effect of Tagore’s figurative language.
Literal and figurative language combined
A lot of language is figurative as well as literal. In poetry, it is important to see descriptions as part of the overall picture. For example, a poem about a sick old man might refer to a ‘flickering candle’. This could mean a literal candle that the old man is holding, but it could also be a metaphor for life about to end.
7 You are about to read a poem about an unspoilt island. In it, the poet refers to the ‘waning sun’. Without reading the poem, what is:
a) the literal meaning of this phrase
b) its possible figurative meaning?
If you are not sure, you can check when you read the whole poem.
From ‘Broken Song’ by Rabindranath Tagore
70 4.2 Understanding figurative language in poetry
8 Which feature of figurative language is this an example of: ‘the sea tossed angrily’?
a) extended metaphor
b) simile
c) metaphor
d) personification
9 Why does the poet describe the bay now and as it might be?
a) to show progress
b) to explain how change happens
c) to shock the reader
d) to create a contrast to reflect on
10 Why does the poet write ‘small eyes’ (reflecting dollar signs)? Tick answers you agree with.
a) to link to the ‘small eyed’ men earlier in the poem
b) to suggest that the men don’t see the true beauty of the place
c) to make the men seem unappealing
d) to suggest that the men have no power
Practice task
72 Practice task
4.3 Understanding sound effects in poetry
Learn how to:
• recognise sound techniques
• recognise the effect of sound techniques.
Why is being able to analyse sound effects important?
You may be asked specific questions about a word or phrase which rely on you having understood that it is a sound effect. You may be asked to identify the technique being used or the effect of its use.
Key term
sound effect: the rhythms and sounds by which letters within words, whole words and combinations of words create meanings
Revision tip
Create a list of sound effects and learn them by using a mnemonic made from their initial letters. Add examples of each technique.
Building skills
Identifying common sound techniques in poetry
1 Poets use many sound effect techniques. Copy the table below and add more examples.
TechniqueDefinition
rhyme Where sounds used in two or more words match, e.g. ‘Only memory will turn down this way/When some old man somewhere recalls his day.’
rhythm Where the length of words, the number of stressed syllables in a word or a line, or the punctuation used creates a regular pattern, e.g. ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ (Wordsworth) has four stressed syllables.
onomatopoeia Where a word’s sound reflects the actual sound that it is describing, e.g. the words ‘growled’ and ‘gargled’ from ‘Laventille’ describe the sound of the gutter water.
alliteration
consonance
When words close to each other have the same initial letter, e.g. ‘Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens’ (G. M. Hopkins).
When words close to each other repeat the same consonant sound, e.g. ‘whose edges fell as/its Episcopal turkey-buzzards fall’ (Walcott).
assonance When words close to each other repeat the same vowel sound, e.g. ‘tin trinkets’, ‘impossible drop’ (Walcott).
sibilance
When the repetition of ‘s’ sounds in words close together creates a ‘hissing’ effect, e.g. ‘He sipped with his straight mouth/Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body’ (D. H. Lawrence)
74 4.3 Understanding sound effects in poetry
Read the following poem and identify any sound effects in it.
The Sea
The sea is a hungry dog, Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day. With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones, And ‘Bones, bones, bones, bones!’
The giant sea-dog moans, Licking his greasy paws.
And when the night wind roars
And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud, He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs, Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs, And howls and hollos long and loud.
But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune Play no more their reedy tune, With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores, So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.
Considering the effect of sound effects in poetry
James Reeves
Remember that writers select words for their impact, sensory appeal and emotion. For example, read aloud the lines from D. H. Lawrence’s ‘Snake’: He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body...
The rhythm of the poem makes the reader read it slowly because of the long second line.
3 What does this suggest about:
a) the snake’s movements
b) the snake’s own shape or form?
Some of the ways in which sound effects work in these areas in ‘The Sea’ are outlined below.
Impact:
• Repetition of sounds can make the words they are a part of more memorable; for example, rhyme at the end of a line. Think whether any lines from ‘The Sea’ have stuck in your mind because they rhyme.
• Alliteration often increases the volume and pace of our reading, which imprints it on our minds more effectively. Did your chosen lines feature alliteration?
4 Find two examples of alliteration in ‘The Sea’. What do they add?
5 Think of an unusual metaphor to describe a tropical storm. Then write a few lines about it, including alliteration and rhyme.
2
5 10 15
20
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Sensory appeal:
• Specific sound effects such as onomatopoeic words help transport the reader to the scene. Pick out the onomatopoeic words from the poem.
• Alliteration, consonance and sibilance can each be repeated to create an ongoing sound effect. Think about how ‘howls and hollos’ help to create an ongoing echoing bark.
• Rhythm can create a sense of movement – for example: ‘He rolls on the beach all day / With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws’. Try saying ‘clashing’ and ‘shaggy’ out loud and think about the kind of motion you picture as you say them.
6 Write two lines of a poem that describes the sound of a tropical storm. Use onomatopoeia, rhythm and letter patterns.
Conveying emotion:
• A fast rhythm, using lots of short syllables, can create a sense of energy and perhaps threat.
• Alliteration of ‘hard’ consonants can often create an angry ‘voice’.
• Alliteration of soft consonants can create a sense that someone is sad or subdued.
• Long assonance can create a sad, eerie or relaxed mood.
7 How does the poet use sounds to present the dog in three different ways in the three verses of the poem?
Read this extract from a poem about a very high cliff. It was written at the start of the 19th century, so some of the language is quite challenging!
From Beachy Head
Advances now, with feathery silver touched, The rippling tide of flood; glisten the sands, While, inmates of the chalky clefts that scar Thy sides precipitous, with shrill harsh cry, Their white wings glancing in the level beam, The terns, and gulls, and tarrocks, seek their food, And thy rough hollows echo to the voice Of the gray choughs, and ever restless daws
precipitous: extremely steep terns, gulls, tarrocks: sea birds chough: a type of crow daw: jackdaw, a type of crow
Charlotte Smith
76 4.3 Understanding sound effects in poetry
Apply the skills
Read the following poem, then answer the items that follow. Before you do so, you could try to:
• identify particular uses of sound effects in the poem (for example, quickly listing examples of alliteration, using the grid on page 74 to help you)
• consider which senses and emotions they appeal to
• think about the individual impact of words, phrases or lines and the overall impact.
Wind-rush
I’d like to set out a storm watching it like the dream it is watching the sea come emptying its folds of boats
Watching towering palmtrees fall across the backs of running cattle watching the wind carry trees and drop them on top of shack roofs
Hearing leaves of branches whistle –I won’t miss how breezeblow madness batter and beat the place up island-wide knocking things over with sea raging and raging How island-wide bugle-blow of wind batter and mash-up the place break up big limb and banana leaf-them in nothing but a day of wind-rush –screaming plundering plunder e ing cr ying
78 4.3 Understanding sound effects in poetry
Ja J mes
11 Which of the following is an example of onomatopoeia from the poem?
a) ‘fall’
b) ‘miss’
c) ‘batter’
d) ‘break up’
12 The third verse uses a series of repeating ‘b’ sounds to emphasise the wind’s power. What is this an example of?
a) alliteration
b) assonance
c) consonance
d) onomatopoeia
13 What sound does the alliterative ‘bugle blow’ make you hear?
a) a deep resounding boom
b) a high-pitched, piercing note or series of notes
c) a repetitive whistle
d) a continuous hum
14 How do the final three words of the poem change or maintain the rhythm of the poem?
a) They slow it down, drawing out the pain through a series of unstressed final syllables.
b) They speed it up, accentuating the wind’s power.
c) They continue the same rhythm, with the ‘-ing’ verbs mirroring all the other verbs.
d) They break up the rhythm, so it sounds jumpy and disjointed.
15 The title ‘Wind-rush’ has another meaning – one referring to the ship that brought the first West Indian immigrants to the United Kingdom in 1948. James Berry missed that boat but came to England on the next one. Which of these statements best describes what the sound effects and devices tell us about the poet’s feelings?
a) They bring back fond memories from childhood.
b) They evoke unpleasant memories of powerful storms.
c) They warn people of the dangers of storms.
d) They show how much he misses island life.
Practice task
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