Take a Figurative Language Test (Put your answers in the comment box and I will tell you how well you fared)

Figurative Language in Poetry

Rise and Stretch Quiz #4

Freshman Language Arts

PART 1: Define Figurative Language Terms

1.     What is a Simile?

A.     an extreme exaggeration that is not meant to be believed.

B.     a direct comparison between two unlike things sometimes using a form of “is” and other times using lengthy analogy.

C.     giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human.

D.    a comparison of two unlike things that always uses “like” or “as.”

2.     What is a Metaphor?

A.     an extreme exaggeration that is not meant to be believed.

B.     a direct comparison between two unlike things sometimes using a form of “is” and other times using lengthy analogy.

C.     giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human.

D.    a comparison of two unlike things that always uses “like” or “as.”

3.     What is a Hyperbole?

A.     an extreme exaggeration that is not meant to be believed.

B.     a direct comparison between two unlike things sometimes using a form of “is” and other times using lengthy analogy.

C.     giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human.

D.    a comparison of two unlike things that always uses “like” or “as.”

4.     What is Personification?

A. a direct comparison between two unlike things sometimes using a form of “is” and other times using a lengthy analogy.

B. giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human.

C. an extreme exaggeration that is not meant to be believed.

D. a comparison of two unlike things that always uses “like” or “as.”

5.     What is Symbolism?

A. giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human.

B. comparison of two unlike things that always uses “like” or “as.”

C. something concrete that represents something else that is abstract; a person, place, thing, or action that may stand for an idea, belief, feeling, or attitude.

D. an extreme exaggeration that is not meant to be believed.

PART 2: Prove you know it. For each example, circle the type of Figurative Language used. HINT: There are four of each type.

6.     O to break loose, like the Chinook

Salmon jumping and falling back, . . .

            (Robert Lowell, Waking Early Sunday Morning)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

7.     Why does a boy who’s fast as a jet

take all day –and sometimes two—

to get to school?

            (John Ciardi, Speed Adjustments)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

8.     . . . the child’s cry opens like a knife-blade.

(Donald Hall, Twelve Seasons)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

9.     I bowed my head, and heard the sea far off

Washing its hands . . .

            (James Wright, At the Slackening of the Tide)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

10. “Hope” is the thing with feathers—

That perches on the soul—.

            (Emily Dickinson, “Hope” is the Thing . . .)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

11. He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

(Robert Frost, Mending Wall)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

12. I wandered lonely as a cloud

(William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely . . . )

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

13. Life is a brief candle.

(William Shakespeare, Macbeath)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

14. Though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

            (Mary Oliver, The Journey)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

15.  It is the East, and Juliet is the Sun! —

(William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

16. Here once the embattled farmers stood

And fired the shot heard round the world

            (Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Concord Hymn)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

17. O Rose, thou art sick!

(William Blake, The Sick Rose)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

18. She scorched you with her radiance.

(James Tate, Poem to Some of my Recent Poems)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

19. The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,

Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.

            (Robert Frost, Once by the Pacific)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

20. At last the garbage reached so high finally it touched the sky.

(Shel Silverstein, Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout . . .)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole

21. It was not Night, for all the Bells

Put out their Tongues, for Noon

            (Emily Dickinson, It was not Death, for I stood up)

A.     Simile

B.     Metaphor

C.     Personification

D.    Hyperbole