Two Poems, with Figurative Language

Says Mr. Dennis Siluk, when asked to review his poetry somewhat, for he hesitates all the time when I ask him to so; I can tell you. Anyhow, he said to me (responding more on poem #728, "Derivative Echoes"): "Figurative Language, meaning words used to refer to something that you don't really mean, is used here to make noises, as are metaphors sometimes. Probably the reason I used figurative Language imagery here was to tie the ideas and feelings my poem [s] expresses [ness] to the physical world in which I want it to exist." He lost me somewhere along the line, but it sounded good when I read the poems. Rosa Penaloza.

The Bear-men of Qolqepunku

(or: the magical ice of Peru)

(Foreshadow)

High up in the Andes of Peru

The Ukukus wander on

Glacier, frost and snow

Dressed in furry clocks and masks

They trek to find the mountains ice

Of sacred healing powers

The Bear-men, they are called:

In the old language of the Quechua;

Guardians of the ice

They cut the ice in solid blocks

Carried on backs, down mountain paths,

To family, friends, and livestock

Ah! Sixteen-thousand feet high, comes

A pilgrimage Qoyllur Rit i' ...

Year, after year, after year.

The Bear-men--, silently watch

Their glacier, slowly disappear

As if in thin air!...

They've now decide to leave the ice

The magical ice of Peru, in place

As warming temperatures rise...

This is helping the Ice Cap

Evaporate, in the 21st Century--

Perhaps this is a whisper...

"Is this the world's end?"

#731 6/17/05

Derivative Echoes

I would show you love in a handful of clouds--

Could I find the clouds, and find the love;

And is it love one is really looking for?

Fallen angels had love from heaven,

And chose lust in place, on earth...!

In hell one loves lust and thus, would be

Unhappy in Heaven I imagine...;

Ah! Maybe allusions is the strand we're

Looking for...? We're living for...

We live in the age of imagined howling

...with aches and pains in the mind

Fear of death--nymphs (well dressed)

Schoolmasters serving children a blotted

Light; perfect pitch, more questions than

Answer; disrupting the harmonic balance!...

#728 6/2005

The Different Types of Figurative Language

Used right, they can give your writing a fresh angle, apart from helping you compare, emphasize or clarify specific thoughts. Make sure you know each type so that you may employ them in your own work.

Metaphor. Metaphors is a figure of speech expressed by comparing two things, saying that one is the other. It is a comparison of two things that do not use "like" or "as." It's highly effective because of the very indirect manner by which it communicates its message, provided the rest of your writing is capably put together (with the help of a complete writing software).

Simile. Like metaphors, they allow you to compare unlike things. However, they use a more traditional method, employing comparisons that use connectors, such as "like" and "as."

Synecdoche. This type of figurative Language uses a part of something to refer to the whole, specify a class of thing used to refer a larger or more general class. Examples include referring to a businessman as a "suit," to money as "paper" and your car as "wheels."

Hyperbole. Frequently employed in humorous writing, this entails exaggerating or overstating a fact for effect or used to evoked strong feelings or impressions. For an example, check out all the "Yo' mamma" jokes.

Pun. Puns are play on words and is the device frequently used for knock-knock jokes.

Personification. In this form of figurative Language, an abstract object or concept is represented as a person, such as when a singer refers to his "car" as a "she."