Title: How does figurative language affect the meaning of a work? | Yahoo Answers
Headings: How does figurative language affect the meaning of a work?
How does figurative language affect the meaning of a work?
4 Answers
Anonymous
Anonymous

Content: Figurative language has the effect of enriching a reader's literary experience. Poets often create images or enhance meaning by comparing one thing to another for special effect. A most important figure of speech is the Metaphor. In a metaphor, a poet writes that X is Y. Readers understand that we are not to take the comparison literally, but that the metaphor helps us to see X in a new way. While similes are used in poetry principally for artistic effect, in formal writing they serve not only to increase interest but also to clarify an idea in an imaginative way, an analogy usually identifies several points of similarity and is created for the purpose of conceptual clarity. Overall, Figurative Language is used for descriptive effect, often to imply ideas indirectly. Figurative expressions are not literally true but express some truth beyond the literal level. ...Show more
Anonymous
5 years ago
Figurative language (aka "literary devices") is writing which says something in a way that is poetic or beautiful. Using figurative language is a way to invite the reader in to experience what the writer is describing. Examples include imagery (words that describe something so well that the reader can almost see, hear, taste, smell, or touch what is being described).