Do You Ever Bite Off More Than You Can Chew?
Imagine what it was like when you were first learning how to read.
Forming letters, sounds, and learning the exceptions to the rules.
Cherishing Dr. Seuss books as if they held all the secrets.
And Yes! Oh! The Places You Would Go!
All of the things you would hear.
Realizing later, some phrases are not meant to be taken literally.
Biting off more than you can chew is an example of figurative language.
Figurative language appears in many forms and quite often reveals an economical way of getting ideas across.
Instead of saying, “Hey, you are doing more than you are really able to do and it is going to catch up with you if you do not make some adjustments in your life,” the idiom (Biting off more than you can chew) only has seven words and relays the same message saving you and your listener from going the long way around. We call this phrase an idiom because it is a natural kind of way of talking among native speakers. We have heard it used before and understand the gist of it.
In this exercise, see if you can list the figures of speech such as puns or play on words and allusions or references to someone or something famous I use in the poem I wrote called, "Certified versus Certifiable." Then as an extension, write a poem in which you choose a figure of speech to focus on in your poem.
Perhaps, incorporate one or more of the following common forms of figures of speech: metaphor: “All the world IS a stage” -Shakespeare, simile: “All the world is [LIKE or AS] a stage” -Shakespeare, personification: “The stage feared for its life.” onomatopoeia: The stage buzzed and hissed with the excitement of opening night.” The last two examples - as far as I know - I just made them up.
Until next time, I hope I did not bite off more than I can chew.
: ) ocfireflies
She did not bite off more than she can chew.
Do you see any puns or allusions?
Figuratively speaking,
Certified versus Certifiable
How we live in a world filled with contradictions
Salutations, condemnations, connotations
Secrets swimming in lyrics…
Nothing is what it appears to be
Nothing is everything
A paradox for even the most intellectual among us…
Beautifully-crafted wonder
Explored by the most innate within us
Recycled, reused, reimagined.
Worlds dreamed by dreamers and poets
Word refreshed lexicons. And
Semantically, Colbert creates a nation
Travels farther than Gulliver
Stewarded by the voice of John…
Medicine men
Sit in circles
Pass the peace pipes
Dancers weave in and out
Artfully wearing their pride
Prejudices and promises…
Landing on all the world’s stages
Singing songs ready to dazzle the masses
Bravely walking out with microphone in hand
Facing judges and audience members alike
A child only knee-high
Sings…
Sings for the whole world
Reaching and finding
That place inside
Where a song
Sits waiting
Ready
To be sung
Over
and
Over
Again…
