Poetry: imagery and performance
English · Key Stage 2 · The School
Three ways to make a picture
A SIMILE compares using like or as: "quiet as snow". A METAPHOR says one thing IS another: "the classroom was a zoo". PERSONIFICATION gives human qualities to something that is not: "the wind argued with the trees". Naming them is easy; the marks are in what comes next.
Effect, not label
Weak: "The poet uses a simile." Strong: "Comparing the silence to snow makes it feel soft and total, as if sound has been buried." Always answer the question the label invites — WHY that comparison and not another? What does it make the reader feel or picture? One good sentence of effect beats a list of five devices.
Reading aloud is analysis
Where does the line break make you pause? Which word does the rhythm push you to stress? Read a poem aloud twice and you will hear things the eye missed — poets write for the ear. If a line makes you slow down, that slowing is a choice the poet made, and it is worth writing about.
Line: "The fog comes on little cat feet." LEVEL ONE: "This is a metaphor." Almost no marks. LEVEL TWO: "The fog is compared to a cat." A little more. LEVEL THREE: "Comparing fog to a cat's feet makes its arrival silent and unnoticed — it is already there before you see it come, which is exactly how fog behaves." The third answer never uses the word metaphor and is worth the most.