Figurative Language- language that can not be taken literally.
metaphor- a direct comparison of two unlike things without using the words "like" or "as."
ex. Skip is a clown.
simile- a comparison of two things using "like" or "as."
ex. She runs like the wind.
personification- giving nonliving things living qualities
ex. The basketball danced around the rim.
Today, we are reading "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83. He is famous as being a Harlem Renaissance poet and writer of short fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance
Langston Hughes'
Mother to Son
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
