We recently took our reading comprehension mid-year assessment, and the results showed that we needed to work on our understanding of figurative language. Thus, we're exploring metaphors.
To begin the unit, we briefly discussed the definition of metaphor, and we looked at examples of metaphors for life. We then made our own metaphors for life with illustrations. Some examples follow. (By the way, we would be interested in your metaphors for life.)
We then read some poems and discussed how the authors used metaphors to explain their ideas about the subjects to the audience. Below are the poems and some illustrations explaining the metaphors.
Hope
by Emily Dickenson
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in
the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must
be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet,
never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
The Sea
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The sea is a hungry dog,
Giant and grey.
He rolls on the beach all day.
With his clashing teeth and shaggy jaws
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5
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Hour upon hour he gnaws
The rumbling, tumbling stones,
And 'Bones, bones, bones, bones!'
The giant sea-dog moans,
Licking his greasy paws.
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10
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And when the night wind roars
And the moon rocks in the stormy cloud,
He bounds to his feet and snuffs and sniffs,
Shaking his wet sides over the cliffs,
And howls and hollos long and loud.
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15
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But on quiet days in May or June,
When even the grasses on the dune
Play no more their reedy tune,
With his head between his paws
He lies on the sandy shores,
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20
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So quiet, so quiet, he scarcely snores.
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—James Reeves
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