TACHS: Figurative language: what an image brings with it
Learn to read an image in a poem by asking what feeling or quality the comparison carries, checking it against the lines nearby, and using the same habit for small actions, contrasts and endings.
When a poem describes something in a way that can't be literally true, how do you tell what it means?
Short answer
Name what is really being described and what it is compared to, then ask what feeling that comparison usually goes with. The answer names that feeling, and the nearby lines should point the same way.
Know first: Reading a short poem line by line, What a simile and personification are
Step 1 of 5
Ask what feeling an image brings
Figurative language describes one thing in terms of another. A room can't really yawn, and a clock hand can't drag its feet. When a poet writes that way, the question is what feeling or quality the image brings with it.
The right answer to an image question is almost never the literal meaning. It names a mood, and the lines around the image usually share that mood.
| Question | How to answer it |
|---|---|
| Why is a small action mentioned? | Ask what feeling the action shows, especially if it repeats. |
| What contrast is central to a stanza? | Look for plain things set against what they become or stand for. |
| What signals an event? | Find the line that states it. Don't count imagined events. |
| What idea does the ending support? | Compare the ending with the opening. What has changed in meaning? |
Each of these depends on the same move: connect a detail to the feeling around it.
Step 2 of 5
Let the nearby lines confirm the feeling
A poem about late afternoon
The classroom yawns1 at three o'clock. Chairs lean back on tired legs2. The clock hand drags its feet uphill3, and the radiator hums, half asleep4.
- Subject: a classroom. Comparison: it does a human action, yawning.
- The chairs are tired too.
- Time feels slow.
- Every image points to the same drowsy mood.
Worked example: What does the yawn suggest?
What does the line “The classroom yawns at three o'clock” suggest?
- AThe room feels sleepy and slow late in the day.
- BThe room has a large open window.
- CThe students in the room are sick.
- DThe building is old and falling apart.
- 1
Subject and comparison
A classroom in the afternoon is given a human action, yawning.
- 2
Feeling
Yawning goes with tiredness, boredom and the end of a day.
- 3
Check the nearby lines
Tired legs, a clock that drags its feet, a radiator half asleep. They all agree.
- 4
See why the other choices are there
B reads the yawn as a literal opening. C turns a mood into an illness. D adds a fact about age that no line supports.
Answer
The room feels sleepy and slow late in the day.
Wrong: The chairs lean back on tired legs means the chairs are broken.
Right: The chairs lean back on tired legs adds to the sleepy, slow mood of the room.
The first reading treats the image as a fact about the furniture. The second asks what feeling the image carries, which is what poem questions test.
Step 3 of 5
Read the images yourself
Read this poem
The field lies flat beneath a bruised gray sky.
The tall grass bows, then bows again.
A single crow calls once and hurries off.
The fence posts stand like guards, and wait for rain.
Check yourself · Question 1
What does the phrase “a bruised gray sky” suggest?
Answer: A
A bruise is dark and tender, so the image suggests a heavy, darkening sky. The bowing grass, the crow hurrying off and the posts that wait for rain all point to a coming storm.
Trap answer: The sky has been hurt by the wind.
Taking the image literally
- Why it looks right
- A bruise really is an injury, so a choice about being hurt seems to match the word.
- Why it's wrong
- Poem questions ask what the image suggests. A bruise brings dark color and heaviness, and the rest of the poem shows a storm on the way.
- The right answer
- The sky is dark and heavy, as if a storm is coming.
Check yourself · Question 2
Why does the poem say the grass “bows, then bows again”?
Answer: D
Grass bends in the wind, and the repeated bowing shows gusts coming again and again. It fits the dark sky and the waiting for rain.
Common mistake
I picked the most dramatic choice because poems are full of strong feelings.
- Why it's tempting
- Poems use vivid words, so a big event or disaster seems to fit.
- Do this instead
- Match the strength of the feeling to the image. A quiet image usually suggests something mild, like waiting or calm, and the lines around it tell you which.
Step 4 of 5
What to remember
Remember
- Name the real subject and what it is compared to.
- Ask what feeling that comparison usually goes with, and check it against the nearby lines.
- Cross out choices that read the image literally or add events the poem never describes.
Step 5 of 5
Practice on a real question
Use what you just learned on this question, then check the explanation.
In your own words
In the practice question, what feeling does the image bring with it, and which other lines in the poem point to the same feeling?