Literal and Figurative Language - Book Report/Review Example

When one sees in a mirror, he sees himself. The man ‘staring back from the glass’ is your own self. The usage of simile can be seen in the following line, In the above-mentioned line, the poet compares the man looking in the glass to Jack Horner and chisel, a plum. The poem is metaphorical in its deliverance of ideas as the poet conveys the notion of a man looking for his own self, he cannot cheat himself as it has a disastrous ending but he can befriend himself by knowing him and by being true to himself.

If he is unable to ‘look him straight in the eye’, he lacks the strength to face himself. It has also some literal aspects such as a man seeing in the mirror, sees his own reflection as the poet says, “A Bird Came Down” by Emily Dickinson also contains literal as well as figurative language. Emily narrates the incident of seeing a bird that ‘came down the walk’, his eating of the angle-worm, his drinking the dew, his rapid eyes, his cautiousness and the poet’s offering of a crumb, each and everything is literal as it appears as a true narration of an event.

However, we can also find figurative language in the poem as the poet compares the bird’s flight and his style, His feathers were like oars, which divided the ocean, they appeared of silver color, his flight was like the flight of butterflies and his style of the flight was like a swimmer who leaped and bounced, while flying. We can see the usage of simile and metaphor in the above lines. His stirring of ‘his velvet head/Like one in danger’ is again containing a simile. The poem, “Little Boy Blue” by Eugene Field shows the employment of literal as well as figurative language.

The presence of old toys at their places and the dust and rust covering them is indicative of their being old and being neglected, which is literal language. The Little boy blue is the child who owns the toys, one of which is described explicitly, the soldier with the dog.