Name: ________________________________________
Figurative Language of O. Henry

Directions: Read each example and write which technique is being used on the line.  There may be more than one correct answer; write more than one answer for extra point.  Also, explain how you got your answer.  

Answers: alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.

1. That boy put up a fight like a welter-weight cinnamon bear.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

2. Arrest seemed but a rosy dream.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

3. I went out and caught that boy and shook him until his freckles rattled.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement
Explain how you figured it out:

4. Coyotes yelped.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

5. The scorn of his comrades would be a worse thing to face than the muzzles of many rifles. 

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement
Explain how you figured it out:

6. Months went by, and still that little cloud of unforgotten cowardice hung above the camp. 

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

7. There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

8. Retribution was creeping up on the hoof-prints of his dapper nags. 

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

9. He was born in the heart of feudland.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

10. Two of the valorous volunteers waited, concealed by beer barrels.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

11.  The city marshal was had decided that Calliope should no more wake the echoes of the town.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement
Explain how you figured it out:

12. Jeff Peters has been engaged in as many schemes for making money as there are recipes for cooking rice in Charleston, South Carolina.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

13. He was making internal noises that would have had everybody in San Francisco hiking for the parks.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

14. She began to talk in Spanish, a mournful stream of melancholy music.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

15. She smiled at me the same as if I was a millionaire.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

16. It was considered an improper act to shoot the bride and groom at a wedding.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement
Explain how you figured it out:

17. For there drifted out sweet music that caught him and held him transfixed against the iron fence. 

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

18. The soul of the man showed itself for a moment like an evil face in the window of a reputable house.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement
Explain how you figured it out:

19. There was a confused hum of wheels below, and the sedative buzz of an electric fan.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

20.  Light as a cork, he was kept bobbing along by the human tide.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

21. Well, for a while they put him to keeping books in the ranch store, for he was a devil at figures.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

22. A dead leaf fell in Soapy's lap. That was Jack Frost's card. 

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________

Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out:

23.  Luck would again run against him.

What technique is being used? ___________________________________________________________
Alliteration, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, personification, or understatement.
Explain how you figured it out: