Poetry--Practice with Application/Examples

Words are flowing like endless rain into a paper cup.

simile

I never wanted anything so much/ than to drown in your love.

hyperbole

When illusions spins her net...

personification

I hear boom, boom, boom in my head when I have a migraine.

onomatopoeia

She checks out Mozart while she does Tae-Bo.

allusion

Guilty feet have got no rhythm.

personification

Our song is a slamming screen door.

metaphor / alliteration

Killing me softly with his song...

hyperbole

As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...

allusion (biblical)

the kind knight rides by

assonance

Well, I'd buy you some art/ a Picasso or Garfunkel...

allusion

Snap your fingers for me!

onomatopoeia

You turned around and you stole my heart.

hyperbole

Everything I do is bittersweet.

oxymoron

Their vagabond shoes are longing to stray.

personification

Death lays his icy hand on the kings.

personification

The world gave a little shiver, making everything jump.

personification

I'm tired of being played like a violin.

simile

He was hateful, hideous, horrible, and hairy.

alliteration

No man is an island.

metaphor / assonance

They are dancing in the new old-fashioned way.

oxymoron

Please enclose the original copy.

oxymoron

The vine clung stubbornly...

personification

He died a thousand times in her eyes.

hyperbole

I'm hopelessly hopeful that you're hopeless enough.

oxymoron

I told him it's not crying time.

Assonance

She is my Venus, my love!

metaphor / allusion

"We're like diamonds in the sky."

simile

There will be more wasps that do buzz about his nose.

onomatopoeia

I go out to the street and become a motorcycle.

metaphor

Bingo is as interesting as watching paint dry.

simile

The moon is a prisoner of the night.

metaphor / personification

It's a jazz affair, drum crashes, corniest razzes...

onomatopoeia

The Canucks' defense is their Achilles' heel.

allusion

The candle throws its light into the darkness...

personification

A soft wet flame fills the room.

oxymoron

Seven sails out on a voyage...

alliteration

My mind is a lake.

metaphor

Deep down, he was truly shallow.

pun

Our love is deeper than the ocean.!

hyperbole

The ferocious sea growled at the shore.

onomatopoeia / personification

Dana threw dimes in her prime.

assonance

Phyllis faked fainting in philosophy class.

alliteration

...only the great oak groans...

personification / assonance

A vast ocean of anxious faces surrounds him.

hyperbole

This existence is living death.

oxymoron

She smiled till her cheeks fell off.

hyperbole

The Pillsbury Dough Boy proposed a half-baked scheme.

pun

A poem is a walk through one's mind.

metaphor

The chalk screeched to a stop on the board.

onomatopoeia

The human mind should be like a good hotel: open all year round.

simile

The buzzing of the bees soothes my soul.

onomatopoeia / alliteration

Death kindly stopped for me.

personification

I will love you until the stars leave the sky.

hyperbole

A kite is a poem, so give it to the wind.

Metaphor

The moonbeams kissed the silent trees.

personification

One day, you will move from mourning into morning.

pun

She was as bloodless as dead words.

simile

She loves smooth words, like gold-enameled fish...

simile

You should read Shakespeare to improve your vocabulary.

allusion

I've called you a million times today.

hyperbole

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze...

alliteration

Broken pencils are pointless.

pun

The world treated him badly.

personification

Splish splash, I was taking a bath...

onomatopoeia

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

simile

Here is hell's handiwork.

alliteration

My body is a floating weed...

metaphor

For she is such a generous thief...

oxymoron

There are those who see with blinding sight.

oxymoron

An aged man is a tattered coat.

Metaphor

I've told you a million times to use the website.

hyperbole

I hate insects; they really bug me.

pun

Go slowly over the old road...

assonance

Over the cobblestones, he clattered and crashed.

alliteration

Spring has taken the city by the hand.

personification

The library, a garden of Eden, sheltered the students.

metaphor / allusion

Fair is fouls and foul is fair...

alliteration