FIGURATIVE POEMS

Figurative language is simply a descriptive way of writing which helps the reader to imagine a picture of the subject or scene, and to bring out the reader’s emotions and help them to relate to the words. In other words, it’s just about using different ways to make your writing interesting! There are many different ways to do this by:

making comparisons (similes and metaphors), repeating sounds (alliteration, assonance and consonance), exaggeration (hyperbole), appealing to the senses (onomatopoeia), and creating images (imagery and personification).

Many of my poems include figurative language; some will maybe only use one form, others will use lots. Therefore, all the poems listed below include some element of figurative language, but they are also then separated into ALLITERATION POEMS, PERSONIFICATION POEMS etc, according to what figurative language is included, so if you are looking for specific examples just look at the drop down menu that appears when you hover over the heading of FIGURATIVE POEMS. My poems will, of course, be duplicated in several of the categories of figurative poems if they include more than one element of figurative language. Look at the TEACHERS’ PAGE, FIGURATIVE WRITING intro to understand more about what each type of figurative language is; it’s nothing like as complicated as the words make it sound!

Harvest – A Performance Poem for a Thanksgiving Celebration

8 May 2012

This is a performance poem for older primary children.  The individual letters of the word HARVEST are held up by seven children.  At the beginning of each verse the children rearrange themselves so that they are in a suitable order for the bold words that follow. The appropriate letters are held aloft for each word, but […]

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A Nursery Rhyme Harvest

8 May 2012

  I know that many schools have the children perform harvest / thanksgiving poems and songs at their harvest celebration, so this one is a little bit of both. The nursery rhymes provide the narration for the main poem, and I have simply amended them to be appropriate to harvest-time.

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Child Miners in Victorian Britain

19 April 2012

I have put together a page of winning children’s poems by Fitzwilliam Primary School on the topic of Victorian child miners.  They include lots of figurative language such as alliteration, personification, similes and metaphors, and different poem forms such as acrostics, list poems and senses poems.

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Queen Primary World War Two children’s poems

19 April 2012

    Having done a World War Two workshop with year five children at Queen Primary, they produced some fantastic poems of different forms, including acrostic & shape poems, using lots of figurative language, such as alliteration and metaphors.  Click here to go to the page of World War Two poems that the children wrote.

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Meet the Lemurs at Yorkshire Wildlife Park

18 April 2012

The following poem is my adaptation of one written by Lucy, an 8 year old poet whose poem won one of my poetry competitions.  Her poem was so effective and full of figurative language  (including alliteration, metaphors and personification) that it made me want to see these fabulous animals.

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The Royal Reply

2 April 2012

      This funny letter poem has rhyme, rhythm, and lots of word play in the appropriate language to make it suitable as a performance poem, imagined to be written as a reply from the queen to my Royal Pardon poem.  It is also an excellent example of alliteration and consonance poetry.

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Ghastly Gases

6 March 2012

  WARNING: This poem is not appropriate for adults! I was merely doing a sensible workshop on alliteration, when Hannah suggested the character “Burping Bailey”, and the poem went downhill with the story from there.  I personally am appalled at the end result, but I definately blame the children!

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Evacuee

6 March 2012

    This rhyming, rhythmical shape poem is written in a list format but in the shape of a suitcase and includes a metaphor and a couple of moments of alliteration.  Thinking of the moment during World War Two when a child was evacuated to the country, I tried to put all of the thoughts […]

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Dancing Leaves

3 March 2012

      This simple shape poem considers the texture and the behaviour of the leaf, and includes a metaphor as well as demonstrating personification.

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Church, but not as we know it!

28 February 2012

      This is just a silly poem straight from my imagination, and is fortunately based only on jokes about church, and not on my own experience!  

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