Lesson 6 — Activity 2: Imagery and

Other Figurative Language


When we read, we might sometimes notice that various writers have very different ways of expressing similar ideas. We understand better what we are reading and we appreciate the talent and thought writers put into their work when we recognize some of the techniques they use to make their writing more interesting and appealing.

One common technique writers use is imagery. This is the way writers use description that appeals to our senses of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell to help us picture the scene being described. Writers do this by using very vivid, descriptive words. For example, compare these two sentences.

"The raspberries were very tasty."

"The sweet juice of the sun-warmed raspberries danced across my tongue."

Although the main idea of the two sentences is the same, the reader is much more involved in the second sentence because the sensation is being described much more intensely.


Example of Imagery
Using the Five Senses

Sometimes the snow is really crunchy and scrapes my fingers when I'm clearing the windshield. Sometimes it's spongy and soggy, like globs of soggy Kleenex. Sometimes the snow is hard and sticks fast like a smooth impenetrable granite rock. It all ends up the same though. My mitts get cold and wet, matting up like dog fur, my fingers get squeaky and pruned within, and I yearn for hot dark steaming coffee.

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This is a technique that is very often used in poetry as well. Because poetry often uses fewer words to communicate a message, poets choose words that appeal to the reader's senses to help support or express their ideas.

The following is an example of a poem that uses imagery to appeal to the reader:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my hear with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

— William Wordsworth


Some other commonly used techniques involve the use of figurative language. Figurative language refers to using words so that they express something more than their literal or exact meaning. By using words in a different or unusual way, writers are able to help us imagine more clearly the concepts they want us to understand.

A simile is a figure of speech that uses like or as to compare two unlike ideas.

For example, "Her cheeks were as red as roses."


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Similes and metaphors are two commonly used examples of figurative language.

A metaphor is also used to compare to unlike things. Unlike a simile, a metaphor says that one thing is another thing, without using like or as.

For example, "The snow is a white blanket."


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A simile directly compares two different things by using words such as like or as to show how they are similar. For example, this simile vividly shows us that the weather is very harsh:

"The hail pelted down like bullets from a passing warplane!"


Other well-known examples of similes include:

She is cute as a kitten.
He was as busy as a bee.
They fought like cats and dogs.
The dress fits like a glove.



A metaphor is an indirect comparison of two things. Rather than using a comparing word (e.g., like, as, etc.), one thing is spoken of or written about as though it were something else. For example, this metaphor illustrates the same nasty weather as the simile above:


"Bullets of hail pounded the flowers mercilessly into the dirt."


Other examples of metaphors include:

She was the apple of my eye.
His room was a pigsty.
Now that is some food for thought.
  We were at a fork in the road.



Digging Deeper!

Click on the Play button below to watch a video on other types of figurative language including alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, and pun!