Figurative Language & Macaronic Language
Featured Poet: Alan Pelaez Lopez
Do Now: What is figurative language & macaronic language in poetry?
Think about:
Simile, metaphor, personification, idiom, hyperbole, irony, imagery
Learning Targets:
NYSESLAT Target of Measurement: Listening .9–12.1: Students can identify words, phrases, or sentences that signal important aspects of individuals or events, claims or counterclaims, evidence, multiple points of view, rhetorical devices, and/or the message or theme in grade-level spoken discourse.
NYSESLAT Target of Measurement: Reading .9–12.1: Students can identify words, phrases, or sentences that signal important aspects of individuals or events, claims or counterclaims, evidence, multiple points of view, rhetorical devices, and/or the message or theme in grade-level spoken discourse.
Objective:
Students will be able to identify figurative language & macaronic language in poetry.
What is figurative language?
Figurative language are the lines, and phrases. This makes meaning by asking the reader or listener to understand something by virtue of its relation to some other thing, action, or image.
Figurative Language
What is a simile and a metaphor?
Similes and metaphors is when you compare two different things. A simile uses the phrases “like” or “as” to compare two things. A metaphor does not use the phrases “like” or “as”, and uses the phrase “is” to compare two things.
What is personification?
Personification is when something is described as if it’s a person. It is when an inanimate object is given a human emotion, and/or behavior.
What is idiom?
An idiom is an expression that holds different meaning than its’ literal meaning.
What is hyperbole?
Hyperbole is an expression where exaggeration is used for emphasis or dramatic effect.
What is irony?
Irony is a form of figure of speech in which the person delivering the ironic statement says something which is completely opposite to what they mean or what the reality of the situation is.
What is imagery?
Imagery is when a piece of text is descriptive language that appeals to the five senses, movement, emotions, and feelings. It is like the text is trying to paint a picture for the reader. There are a few types of imagery that can be used in writing.
Video: Figurative Language
Macaronic Language
What is macaronic language?
Composed of a mixture of languages.
Featured poet: Alan Pelaez Lopez
Dr. Alan Pelaez Lopez is an AfroIndigenous (Zapotec) poet, installation and adornment artist from Oaxaca, México. Their work attends to the quotidian realities of undocumented migrants in the United States, the Black condition in Latin America, and the intimate kinship units that trans and nonbinary people build in the face of violence. Their debut visual poetry collection, Intergalactic Travels: poems from a fugitive alien (The Operating System, 2020), was a finalist for the 2020 International Latino Book Award. They are also the author of the chapbook to love and mourn in the age of displacement (Nomadic Press, 2020). While they are an artist, Alan has also been organizing with undocumented migrants in the United States for over ten years and firmly believes that art is a portal into the future.
You can read Alan’s writing on Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Poetry, Catapult, the Georgia Review, and more.
Featured poet: Alan Pelaez Lopez
Alan Pelaez Lopez, Ph.D., was born in Mexico and constantly migrated between the state of Mexico, Mexico City, and Oaxaca’s Costa Chica. At five, Pelaez Lopez migrated alone to the United States, undocumented. As a minor, Pelaez Lopez began to make jewelry as a source of income, which is where they found their passion for art.
In 2010, Pelaez Lopez became artistically, socially and politically involved in the immigrant rights movement as DREAM Act votes were about to take place. In 2011, after the legislation failed, Pelaez Lopez helped organize an 11-night and 12-day action on the steps of the Massachusetts State House to denounce and testify against the criminalization of immigrants in the state. Later, they took on leadership positions with the Student Immigrant Movement and shortly after, with the Queer Undocumented Immigrant Project.
As a young organizer, Pelaez Lopez was mentored by undocumented Black migrants from the Caribbean and South America, which is what led them to develop an unapologetically Black and queer feminist vision for liberation. Through community organizing and strategizing, Pelaez Lopez has facilitated roundtable discussions with U.S. Senators and Representatives; protested detention centers in CA, TX, NY, and MA; and led political and popular education workshops in Washington DC, NY, MA, VT, CA, GA, TX, IL, PA, and CT.
In 2013, Pelaez Lopez was named a recipient of the National Youth Courage Award for their commitment to uplifting the voices of LGBTQIA+ undocumented immigrants in the United States. They accepted the award in New York City and were an honored guest at NYC Pride. In 2014, they moved to Los Angeles to complete a fellowship at the UCLA Labor Center where they launched their first visual storytelling project and have since worked in the field of public and digital narrative(s).
Pelaez Lopez is a former steering committee member and co-founder of Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement, and the Black LGBT Migrant Project (BLMP).
They earned a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
“the afterlife of illegality” by Alan Pelaez Lopez
Example #1: What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Example #1: What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Alan Pelaez Lopez wrote this poem in English, and another language.
Example #2:
What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Turn & Talk
Example #2:
What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Alan Pelaez Lopez wrote this poem in English, and another language.
Example #3:
What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Alan Pelaez Lopez wrote this poem in English, and another language.
Example #3:
What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Example #4: What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Example #4: What is the macaronic language part of this poem?
Alan Pelaez Lopez wrote this poem in English, and another language.
Group Work: Can you find examples of simile, metaphor, personification, idiom, hyperbole, irony, and imagery in the poem “the afterlife of illegality” by Alan Pelaez Lopez?
Example #1: Situational Irony
This part of the poem can be defined as situational irony because Alan has a right to be in the country with a letter that he obtains, but it is still stopped by a soldier and gets locked up regardless of what the paper says.
Example #2: Metaphor
The line “Will one day be the poem that splits the earth in half and will look inside and offer my body to the underworld” as Alan is comparing himself to becoming a poem with power, and meaning.
Example #3: Hyperbole
The line “every day, I pick up the earth and put it in my bad. I made [ ] a promise and I mean to keep it” can be considered as a Hyperbole because Alan is exaggerating the fact that he is really trying to experience everything around him, and live life to the fullest by saying he is picking up Earth and putting it in a bag.
Example #4: Imagery
Alan uses imagery throughout the entire poem trying to really make the reader imagine a picture of a video of what is going on in his life. In this part of the poem Alan describes how he feels, and what he imagines when he is in the taxi. He is imagining he is in Mexico again.
Exit Ticket: Can you find an additional example of simile, metaphor, personification, idiom, hyperbole, irony, and imagery in the poem “the afterlife of illegality” by Alan Pelaez Lopez?
Independently complete in your notes.