Poetry is a type of literature, or artistic writing, that attempts to stir a reader's imagination or emotions. The poet does this by carefully choosing and arranging language for its meaning, sound, and rhythm. Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation (actual words used), often to describe something by comparing it to something else or to create mental pictures with words. Let's start with two poems everyone should be familiar with. The Road Not Taken By Robert Frost Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost Robert Frost http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/192 The Rainy Day by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1842 The day is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; The vine still clings to the mouldering wall, But at every gust the dead leaves fall, And the day is dark and dreary. My life is cold, and dark, and dreary; It rains, and the wind is never weary; My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past, But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast, And the days are dark and dreary. Be still, sad heart! and cease repining; Behind the clouds is the sun still shining; Thy fate is the common fate of all, Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/henry-wadsworth-longfellow Don't Like Poetry? Betcha do. http://melanielinktaylor.mzteachuh.org/2018/04/dont-like-poetry-betcha-do.html