Because crying / is against / The Rules.” Stay put, I whispered to him, / Stay strong, I whispered to me. “I FELT LIKE CRYING / which felt like / another person / trapped behind my face / tiny fists punching / the backs of my eyes / feet kicking / my throat at the spot / where the swallow / starts.Like there's something up there / beaming down on us in the dark.” “When bad things happen / we can usually look up and see / the moon, big and bright, / shining over us.“Buck laughed, and / laughter, / when it's loud / and heavy / and aimed / at you, / I think / can feel just / as bad as / a bullet's / bang.'.Prayed the boom, followed by the buzz of a bullet, ain't meet us.And my mom moaning low… / hanging over my brother's body like a dimmed light post.“My mother used to say, / I know you're young, / gotta get it out, / but just remember, when / you're walking in the nighttime, / make sure the nighttime / ain't walking into you.”.“Heavier than / I expected, / like holding / a newborn”.“trying / to eat / all of / us as / if we / are beef.”.“Don’t know if this was / even close to how they / are, but the ground / definitely felt like / it opened up / and ate me.”.“the absolute worst part, / is the constant slipping / of your tongue / into the new empty space, / where you know / a tooth supposed to be / but ain’t no more.”.To differentiate or scaffold, teachers can provide students with a list of types of figurative language to look out for, or have students identify them on their own!Įxamples of Figurative Language in Long Way Down Teachers may ask them to identify one type of figurative language and find multiple examples, or select one example for different types. and illustrate the examples from the text.

In this activity, students will identify figurative language such as similes, metaphors, personification, imagery, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, etc.

There are so many examples of figurative language present throughout Jason Reynold's Long Way Down, adding to its powerful poetry.

A long way down by jason reynolds