LESSON 2

ELEMENTS OF CREATIVE LANGUAGE

(WEEK 2)
CONTENT STANDARDS
The learners have an understanding of imagery, diction, figures of speech, and variations on language
PERFORMANCE STANDARDS
The learners shall be able to produce short paragraphs or vignettes using imagery, diction, figures of speech, and
specific experiences
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
The learners…
1. utilize language to evoke emotional and intellectual responses from readers
2. use imagery, diction, figures of speech, and specific experiences
STARTER

CLOSE READING

What does an ambulance do?

___________________________________________________________________________________________.
Read the poem silently and answer the questions that follow.
Auto Wreck
By Karl Shapiro
Its quick soft silver bell beating, beating,
And down the dark one ruby flare
Pulsing out red light like an artery,
The ambulance at top speed floating down
Past beacons and illuminated clocks
Wings in a heavy curve, dips down,
And brakes speed, entering the crowd.
The doors leap open, emptying light;
Stretchers are laid out, the mangled lifted
And stowed into the little hospital.
Then the bell, breaking the hush, tolls once.
And the ambulance with its terrible cargo
Rocking, slightly rocking, moves away,
As the doors, an afterthought, are closed.
We are deranged, walking among the cops
Who sweep glass and are large and composed.
One is still making notes under the light.
One with a bucket douches ponds of blood
Into the street and gutter.
One hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling,
Empty husks of locusts, to iron poles.
LOOKING BACK
1. Listen as your friend or one of your family members reads the poem orally.
2. Listen and watch out for the words or phrases telling you what an ambulance and its parts are doing.
3. List down the words or phrases that stood out. For example, “the doors leap open.”
Our throats were tight as tourniquets,
Our feet were bound with splints, but now,
Like convalescents intimate and gauche,
We speak through sickly smiles and warn
With the stubborn saw of common sense,
The grim joke and the banal resolution.
The traffic moves around with care,
But we remain, touching a wound
That opens to our richest horror.
Already old, the question Who shall die?
Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?
For death in war is done by hands;
Suicide has cause and stillbirth, logic;
And cancer, simple as a flower, blooms.
But this invites the occult mind,
Cancels our physics with a sneer,
And spatters all we knew of denouement
Across the expedient and wicked stones.

1. 6.
2. 7.
3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10.
4. Watch out for words or phrases that compare two things or objects directly or indirectly.
5. List down words or phrases that stood out. For example, “cancer, simple as a flower, blooms.”

1. 4.
2. 5.
3. 6.
6. Watch out for phrases with words that are natural contrasts or contradictions.
7. List down these words or phrases that stood out. For example, “grim joke.”

1. 4.
 2. 5.
3. 6.
8. Complete the matrix below by writing the words, imagery, or details that stood out when you listened to and read
the poem yourself.

1. 6.
2. 7.
3. 8.
4. 9.
5. 10.
For example, when I listened to or read the poem, these words made me “see”, “hear”, “feel”, or create a picture
of the same in my mind: “the ambulance at top speed floating down” or simply “ambulance…floating.”

DISCUSSION

IMAGERY AND FIGURES OF SPEECH

Imagery is a figurative language used to represent objects, actions, and ideas in a manner that appeals to the
senses. It uses vivid descriptive language to add depth to the work. Imagery creates mental pictures in the reader as
he/she reads the text.

There are many kinds of figures of speech. The common ones are: simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia,
personification, apostrophe, hyperbole, alliteration, synecdoche, metonymy, oxymoron, and paradox.

Simile is stated comparison (formed with “like” or “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar things that
have certain qualities in common, while metaphor is an implied comparison between two unlike things that have
something in common.

Example of simile: Example of Metaphor:

“Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? “Hope is the thing with feathers-that perches in the
Or fester like a sore- soul-
And then run? And sings the tune without the words-
Does it stink like rotten meat? And never stops-at-all”
Or crust and sugar over-
Like a syrupy sweet?”
(Hope is directly compared to feathers; it perches and
(Comparison is done using the word “like”) sings without a tune that never stops.)
Onomatopoeia uses words that imitate sounds associated with objects or actions. Personification, on the
other hand, endows human qualities or abilities to inanimate objects or abstractions. Addressing an absent person or
thing that is an abstract, inanimate, or inexistent character is an apostrophe.

Example of Onomatopoeia: Example of personification:

“How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells-
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.”
“Ah, William, we’re weary of the weather,”
said the sunflowers, shining with the dew.
“Our travelling habits have tired us.
Can you give us a room with the view?”
(The sunflowers are given the human ability to speak.)

(The sound of the bells: tinkle. Tintinnabulation,

jingling, tinkling.)

Example of apostrophe:
“Death be not proud, though some have call thee
Mighty and dreaffull, for, thou art not soe,
For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”

Question: Who is addressed here?

 Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis or exaggerated effect. When an initial
consonant sound is repeated, alliteration is used.

Example of hyperbole: Example of alliteration:

“till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
O I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.”
What are the exaggerations used here?
“When I see birches bend from from left and right…
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.”
(The consonant sound b- is repeated in the verse: birches
bend and boy’s been.)

A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent a whole is called synecdoche. When one word or phrase is
substituted for another with which it’s closely associated to or when something is described indirectly by referring to
things around it, that is metonymy.

Example of synecdoche: Example of Metonymy:

“The western wave was all a flame. “Friends’ Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
The day was well was nigh done!
Almost upon the western wave
Rested the broad bright sun” (The word ears represents or is used to substitute for
close attention.)
(The wave is part of the ocean. The wave refers to the
whole ocean.)
Oxymoron is a figure of speech where incongruous or contradictory terms appear side by side. Paradox is a
statement that appears to contradict itself.

Example of Oxymoron: Example of paradox:

“Why, then, O brawling love! O loving hate! “ My heart leaps up when I behold
O anything, of nothing first create! a rainbow in the sky:
O heavy lightness! serious vanity! So was it when my life began;
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms! So is it now I am a man;
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, So be it when I shall grow old,
Sick health! Or let me die!
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is! The Child is the father of the Man”
This love feel I, that feel no love in this.
Dost thou not laugh?”

DEEPER LOOK

1. Upon reading the word “ambulance”, what words or scenes did you associate it with?
_____________________________.

2. What do you think happened in the poem? Why was an ambulance present? Was there an emergency? What word or
phrase tells us it was an emergency?
___________________________________________________________________________.

3. Was there a patient? Did the patient live or die? What word or phrase tells us this?
_______________________________.

4. What was the feeling of the onlookers? Were they happy or sad? What word or phrase tells us this?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________.

5. Can you point out the line that tells us the cause of death? What is the attitude of the author toward death and its cause?
What word or phrase gives us a clue to this?
_______________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.

6. Have the figures of speech used helped you “picture” the scenario described in the poem? Explain.
___________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________.

7. What is the poem about? ___________________________________________________________________________.

LOOK AND SEE

Draw a symbolic representation of the poem. Theme of the Poem:

Explanation (of the symbolic representation):

Relationship (of the poem and the symbol):

WRITE IT

1. Examine the picture below.

2. Describe what you see without using without using imagery or figures of speech.
3. Then, describe the picture using any applicable imagery or figures of speech. For example:

Figure of Speech Example

Simile The punch came as fast as lightning.
Metaphor The punch is a thunder.
Personification The glove flew faster than before.
Onomatopoeia That punch left my ear ringing.
Apostrophe Heavens, help me!
Hyperbole The blow left me dead for hours!
Alliteration Blow-by-blow the reporters busily broadcasted the
happenings.
Synecdoche Malacañang congratulated its champion.
Metonymy His face was humiliated.
Oxymoron It was a humbling victory.
Paradox Professional boxing tells us a story of freedom and
exploitation.

Is there any difference between following descriptions? How are they

different?

a. The boxer was hit fast and hard on the face.

b. The punch flew as fast as lightning and left his ears ringing forever.
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________.
 Your turn!

Figure of Speech Without Figure of Speech With Figure of Speech

Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Onomatopoeia

Apostrophe

Hyperbole

Alliteration

Synecdoche

Metonymy

Oxymoron

Paradox
Learner’s Name: ________________________________________ Year & Section: _______________________
Parent/ Guardian: ______________________________________ Date: _____________________________
(Signature over Printed Name) Teacher: _______________________ Contact No: ___________