Figurative Language Test 1

Directions: Choose only one answer.  You are responsible for making clean marks and erasing your mistakes.  Try your best.  When you are done, check your answers.  

SECTION 1 – DEFINITIONS: Match the term with the definition. Shade in the appropriate bubble.

For questions 1 through 4.  Not all of the choices are used.  

1.	metaphor

2.	alliteration

3.	simile

4.	hyperbole

A.  exaggeration for effect

B.  comparison of two or more things using “like” or “as”

C.  when one idea or sentence is stretched over two or more lines.

D.  repeating the same starting sounds of words.

E.  comparison of two or more things not using “like” or “as”

For questions 5 through 8.  Not all of the choices are used.  

5.	rhythm

6.	repetition

7.	rhyme

8.	enjambment

A.  repeating the same starting sounds of words.

B.  when one idea or sentence is stretched over two or more lines.

C.  a regular pattern of stresses, like a beat.  

D.  when a poet repeats a word or words to emphasize  

E.  when two words share the same final sound 

For questions 9 through 12.  Not all of the choices are used.  

9.	personification

10.	onomatopoeia

11.	imagery

12.	irony

A.  when a words pronunciation imitates its sound

B.  when the outcome of a situation is the exact opposite of what was expected

C.  giving human traits or characteristics to an object or idea

D.  writing that uses the five senses to create “pictures”

E.  exaggeration for effect

SECTION 2 – EXAMPLES

Directions: Read the following examples of figurative language.  Identify the poetic device that is most clearly being used.  Choose the best answer.  Shade in the appropriate bubble on your Scantron form.    

13.  When you, my Dear, are away, away, / How wearily goes the day.
         A year drags after morning, and night / Starts another year

     a. metaphor		b. onomatopoeia	c. irony		d. simile		e. hyperbole

14.  Chicago is a city that is fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action.

     a. enjambment	b. metaphor		c. simile	            d. onomatopoeia	e. repetition

15.  Gracefully she sat down sideways, / With a simper smile 

     a.  rhyme		b.  simile		c.  metaphor	            d.  personification	e. alliteration	

16.  Drip—hiss—drip—hiss— fall the raindrops. 

     a.  metaphor 	b. hyperbole		c. personification	d. onomatopoeia	e. simile

17. The fountain tossed its water, / Up and up, like silver marbles.

     a.  simile      	b. hyperbole		c. rhyme	            d. metaphor		e. idiom

18. Falstaff sweats to death, as he walks along; / Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.

     a. rhyme		b.  personification	c.  simile           	d. metaphor		e. hyperbole

19.  Lives of great men remind us / We can make our lives sublime;
       And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time.

     a. simile		b. metaphor	             c. onomatopoeia	d. personification	e. hyperbole

20. His sorrow goes / Like mountain snows / In waters sweet and clear,

     a. simile		b. hyperbole		c. metaphor  		d. onomatopoeia	e. repetition

21. The tear-drop trickled to his chin: / There was a meaning in her grin

     a. hyperbole   	b. rhyme		c. repetition	            d. simile           	e. metaphor

22.  All night long with rush and lull / The rain kept drumming on the roof:

     a. simile		b. hyperbole		c. repetition       	d. personification	e. rhyme

23.  The child with / her infinite energy / would run / her parents to / the ground

     a. metaphor	            b. simile		c. hyperbole	            d. personification	e. repetition

24. My love is like a red, red rose.

     a. repetition	b. personification        c. onomatopoeia	d. metaphor		e. rhyme

25.  When the stooping sky / Leans down upon the hills   

     a. hyperbole	b. personification 	c. metaphor		d. simile		e. repetition

26.  There’s a patch of old snow in a corner.

     a. simile		b. metaphor		c. imagery		d. irony		e. repetition

SECTION 3 – WHOLE POEMS: Read the poems and the questions.  Choose the BEST answer. 
 
We Wear the Mask
Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile1;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad2 subtleties3.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
    We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile4
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
    We wear the mask!

1.  Guile: treacherous cunning; skillful deceit.
2.  Myriad: a vast number; many.
3.  Subtleties: being difficult to detect.
4.  Vile: loathsome; disgusting. 	Poet Among Barbarians
By: John Gould Fletcher

The rain drives, drives endlessly,
Heavy threads of rain;
The wind beats at the shutters,
The surf drums on the shore;
Drunken telephone poles lean sideways;
Dank summer cottages gloom hopelessly;
Bleak factory-chimneys are etched on the filmy distance,
Tepid1 with rain.
It seems I have lived for a hundred years
Among these things;
And it is useless for me now to make complaint against them.
For I know I shall never escape from this 
Dull barbarian country,
Where there is none now left to lift a cool jade winecup,
Or share with me a single human thought.

1.  Tepid: only slightly warm; luke warm.

27.  Which of the above poems has a continuous rhythm?

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

28.  Which of the above poems use rhyme?

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

29.  Which of the above poems uses more hyperbole? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	

30.  Which of the above poems uses enjambment? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

31.  Which of the above poems uses metaphor? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

32.  Which of the above poems uses simile? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

33.  Which of the above poems uses repetition? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

34.  Which of the above poems uses more personification? 

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	

35.  In which of the above poems does the speaker use a pleasant or joyful tone?

a. We Wear the Mask	    				b.  Poet Among Barbarians	
c. Neither of these poems				d.  Both of these poems

A Patch of Old Snow
Robert Frost

There’s a patch of old snow in a corner
  That I should have guessed
Was a blow-away paper the rain
  Had brought to rest.

It is speckled with grime as if
  Small print overspread it,
The news of a day I’ve forgotten—
  If I ever read it.

	Bee, I’m Expecting You!
Emily Dickenson

Bee, I’m expecting you!
Was saying yesterday 
To somebody you know
That you were due.

The frogs got home last week,
Are settled and at work,
Birds mostly back,
The clover warm and thick.

You’ll get my letter by
The seventeenth; reply,
Or better, be with me.
        Yours,
               Fly.	

36.   Which of the above poems uses rhyme?

a. A Patch of Old Snow     b. Bee, I’m Expecting You  	c. neither		d. both 

37.   Which of the above poems uses more personification?

a. A Patch of Old Snow     b. Bee, I’m Expecting You  	

38.   Which of the above poems uses simile?

a. A Patch of Old Snow     b. Bee, I’m Expecting You  	c. neither		d. both 

39.   Which of the above poems uses hyperbole?

a. A Patch of Old Snow     b. Bee, I’m Expecting You  	c. neither		d. both 

40.   Which of the above poems resembles a letter?

a. A Patch of Old Snow     b. Bee, I’m Expecting You  	c. neither		d. both