Jealousy

Objectives

1. To revise similes, metaphors, personifications and literal statements2. To revise certain parts of speech: adjectives, verbs and nouns 3. To demonstrate how each of the above types of word can be used emotively4. To develop a powerful emotive vocabulary in order to increase the force of

the students’ own creative writing

Activities1. Ask the students to consider what the differences between song lyrics and poetry

are2. Revise the five definitions below: simile, metaphor, personification, literal

statement and emotive language3. Play the Jealousy audio file4. Ask the students to complete Task 15. Show the answers (which are at the end of this document) and discuss any areas

of disagreement6. Ask the students to complete tasks 2-4 and, after each task, show the answers7. Ask the students to give themselves a mark out of 22 in order to appraise how

well they have understood the concepts revised today8. Ask the students to make a list of songs that they enjoy which would be

sufficiently well written to merit analysis9. Hear ideas10. Remind the students that as well as looking for examples of such poetic

techniques when asked to comment on a writer’s use of language to create effects, they can also consider using language in this powerful way in their own creative writing

11. Extension work: using the list of 17 emotive words which can be found in the answers to tasks 2-4, the students should attempt to write a powerful short story. For stimulus, they might initially read an Edgar Allan Poe story … or watch a short film version of one his classic tales. There a number of these available on Youtube.

Task 1

Decide whether each of the quotations in the table below, taken from the highly emotive song lyric Jealousy, is a simile, metaphor, personification or literal statement.

DEFINITIONS:

SIMILE - a comparison in which one thing is said to be like or as another thing, e.g. ‘the surface of the lake was as smooth as a mirror’.

METAPHOR - a comparison in which one thing is said to be something which it literally is not, ‘the surface of the lake was a mirror’; OR when something is said to be able to do something which it literally cannot do, e.g. ‘the lake burned in the midday sun.’

PERSONIFICATION – when any non-human thing is given human qualities which it literally cannot possess, e.g. ‘the surface of the lake glowed with happiness’.

LITERAL STATEMENT – a purely factual statement, e.g. ‘the sun shone on the surface of the lake.’ This is not a figure of speech – unlike the above.

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE - words and phrases which arouse or convey strong emotion

QUOTATION FIGURE OF SPEECH?

1 Jealousy twists a knife into your soul,Makes the heart grow cold.

2 Jealousy - There’s no more that you can ask of me.Gave myself to you so willingly,Dedicate my love to you.

3 Jealousy,Chained a man who had so long been free,Cast her spell upon my sanity.

4 Jealous lovers,Burn with pain.

5 Jealous lovers,Point the finger of blame.

Task 2From the above song lyric, find the four most emotive verbs:

Verbs are doing words

Task 3From the above song lyric, find three emotive adjectives:

Adjectives are words which describe a noun

Task 4From the above song lyric, find ten emotive nouns:

Nouns are words which name things – real things which, for example,you might touch AND abstract things which you definitely cannot touch, e.g. good and evil

SEE NEXT PAGE FOR ANSWERS …

ANSWERS

Task 1

Decide whether each of the quotations in the table below, taken from the highly emotive song lyric Jealousy, is a simile, metaphor, personification or literal statement.

QUOTATION FIGURE OF SPEECH?

1 Jealousy twists a knife into your soul,Makes the heart grow cold.

Personification

2 Jealousy - There’s no more that you can ask of me.Gave myself to you so willingly,Dedicate my love to you.

Personification

3 Jealousy,Chained a man who had so long been free,Cast her spell upon my sanity.

Personification

4 Jealous lovers,Burn with pain.

Metaphor

5 Jealous lovers,Point the finger of blame.

Literal statement (but could equally be a metaphor)

Task 2From the above song lyric, find the four most emotive verbs:

twists dedicate chained burn

Verbs are doing words

Task 3

From the above song lyric, find three emotive adjectives:

cold free jealous (‘blame’ could be said to act as an adjective here as it describes a noun – the

finger)

Adjectives are words which describe a noun

Task 4From the above song lyric, find ten emotive nouns:

jealousy knife soul heart love spell sanity lovers pain blame (‘cold’, although used as an adjective here, can also be a noun)

Nouns are words which name thing: real things which, for example, you might touch - and abstract things which you definitely cannot touch, e.g. good and evil

GRAND TOTAL = 22