It is a sunny Wednesday morning, January 25, 2012. A Gilded Flicker, numerous Collared Doves, Sparrows and Red Poll are jostling for food outside my window. The sunshine feels grand on my face. I love sunshine and I love beautiful language. These January days I am having opportunity to visit one on one with all of my students. Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful visit with a ninth grade young woman who has discovered the delight of figurative language; the power of personification,  alliteration, simile, metaphor and more. I invite all of you to be on the look-out for beautiful words, words that enlarge understanding and are delicious to the ear. Share your findings ...

Enjoy these samples of similes: 1. Little Women: "…she tried to get rid of the kitten which had scrambled up her back and stuck like a burr just out of reach."
2. The Red Badge of Courage: "In the eastern sky there was a yellow patch like a rug laid for the feet of the coming sun…".
3. Magnificent Obsession - "…utterly absorbed by the curious experience that still clung to him like a garment."
4. East of Eden - "Kate inched over her own thoughts like a measuring worm."