Poetry and figurative language in English

What is figurative language?

Language that means more than its literal words. My backpack weighs a ton is not literally true — it uses exaggeration (hyperbole) to communicate how heavy it feels.

Simile: comparison with like or as

Her smile was like sunshine. He runs as fast as a cheetah. Similes make abstract feelings concrete by comparing them to something physical. Signal words: like, as, as...as.

Metaphor: direct comparison

The classroom was a zoo. Her words were knives. Metaphors say something IS something else — they transform our understanding of the thing described.

Personification: giving life

The sun smiled down on us. Opportunity knocked on her door. Personification gives human actions to non-human things, making them feel alive and intentional.

Reading a poem for meaning

Step 1: Read it aloud. Step 2: Note feelings. Step 3: Identify figurative devices. Step 4: Ask what the poet is really saying. Step 5: Connect to your own experience.

Poetry forms in English

Haiku (3 lines, nature), sonnet (14 lines, love or argument), free verse (no rules), limerick (5 lines, funny), spoken word (performance poetry). Each form shapes meaning differently.

Writing your own metaphor

Pick an emotion: sadness. What is it like? Sadness is a heavy coat I cannot take off. Now youve made an invisible feeling into a physical image. That is metaphor.

Practice

Write a 6-line poem about your school using at least: 1 simile, 1 metaphor, and 1 personification. Read it aloud to check how it sounds.

Why this matters

Figurative language is in all great communication: songs, ads, speeches, novels. Recognizing it makes you a sharper reader and a more creative writer.

To go deeper

Choose a famous English poem. Identify all figurative devices. Then rewrite it in literal English and notice what is lost.

SEP · MX-SEC-G1-ING-C09-P01 · juegos del lenguaje en inglés para expresar sensaciones, emociones e ideas sobre las familias

LANGUAGE PLAY is using words creatively, not only correctly. Classic plays: RHYME (home - warm - storm), alliteration (loving, loyal family), acrostic (the first letters of each line spell FAMILY), similes (My mom is like a lighthouse: she guides me), and silly word chains (father - mother - brother - other - her). Playing with sounds makes emotions easier to say.

Sensations and feelings live in short, strong phrases: My heart is warm when we eat together. I feel safe at my grandmother’s house. My brother is annoying but I miss him when he is gone. Ideas about family go further: Family is not only blood, it is who stays. The PDA is met when you CHOOSE a language game (a rhyme, an acrostic, a simile) and use it to express what you feel and think about your families - the ones you were born into and the ones you built.

SEP · MX-SEC-G3-ING-C06-P01 · use figures of speech and aesthetic resources to build a short oral or written literary text

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE makes words mean more than their literal sense. In English the most common FIGURES OF SPEECH are: SIMILE ("brave as a lion", using like/as), METAPHOR ("the classroom was a zoo", saying one thing IS another), PERSONIFICATION ("the wind whispered", giving human traits to non-human things) and ALLITERATION ("silent snow", repeating initial sounds). Writers use them to create IMAGES in the reader's mind and to express feelings that plain language cannot carry.

To build a SHORT LITERARY TEXT (a few lines of prose or poem) you choose a theme, then decorate it with aesthetic resources: sensory images (what you see, hear, touch), sound (rhythm and rhyme), and at least two different figures of speech. Remember the audience: a text can be READ ALOUD or performed, so its rhythm matters. A short piece still needs a shape — a beginning that opens a feeling, a middle that develops it and an ending that leaves the reader thinking. Draft it, read it aloud, and cut every word that does not help.

SEP · MX-SEC-G3-ING-C07-P01 · create short poems using the aesthetic resources of English to share in oral and written work

A SHORT POEM compresses a feeling into few lines using the AESTHETIC RESOURCES of English. Three tools give a poem its music: RHYME (ending words with the same sound: day/way), RHYTHM (the pattern of stressed syllables, which you feel when you read aloud) and REPETITION (an anaphora like "I saw… I saw… I saw"). Poets also pack meaning with imagery — colours, sounds, weather — so the reader does not only understand the idea but FEELS it. Popular short forms you can copy are the HAIKU (5-7-5 syllables, usually about nature), the ACROSTIC (first letters spell a word) and the FREE VERSE (no fixed rhyme, but strong images).

To write, perform and SHARE your poem: choose a subject that matters to you, list concrete words connected to it, choose one key image, then draft two or three lines. Read every draft aloud and fix the sounds that stumble. When you present it orally, work on your VOICE (volume, speed, pauses) and your eyes on the audience. Finally DIFUNDE it: read it in class, record an audio, or publish it in a wall magazine with the figure of speech you used highlighted, so others can see your aesthetic decisions.

Evidencia de producto · MX-SEC-G3-ING-C07-P01

El PDA pide CREAR poemas cortos a partir del uso de recursos esteticos del inglés en producciones orales y escritas, para difundirse. Crear con recurso estetico deliberado y difundir: el poema debe salir al aire.

Criterios de evaluación (rúbrica) de este producto — autoevalúa cada criterio: Logrado / En progreso / Aún no.