Question

List all figurtive language used in this poem:

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

Answer 1

Some examples of figurative language used in this poem include:

"your throat filled with the silt of it" (metaphor)

"tropical heat" (metaphor)

"heavy as water" (simile)

"an obesity of grief" (metaphor)

"hold life like a face" (metaphor)

"no charming smile, no violet eyes" (personification)

The poem also contains several other examples of figurative language, such as:

"burnt paper in your hands" (simile)

"gills than lungs" (metaphor)

"grief sits with you" (personification)

"weights you down like your own flesh" (simile)

"I will take you" (metaphor)

"I will love you, again" (repetition)