What figurative language is in 5th grade poetry?

Mostly metaphors, similes and personification, which the 5th grade standard, RL.5.4, names. A poem might say a kettle sings or call fog a gray blanket. The questions ask what the comparison makes you see or feel, not just what it's called.

Are the poems printed exactly as written?

Yes. They're classic public-domain poems by writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, copied with the poet's own line breaks and punctuation. Old spellings stay too, so cooky prints the way Vachel Lindsay spelled it. Each sheet ends with an answer key.

5th grade poetry analysis

5th grade poetry analysis worksheets

Fifth grade poetry worksheets pair one classic poem, printed exactly as the poet wrote it, with five questions. Students explain what a metaphor, simile or personified line shows, work out how the stanzas build on each other, and pick the speaker's feeling and the theme. Every poem is in the public domain.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core RL.5.4, RL.5.5.

Each click picks one of the 30 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of passages you'll get

Read the poem twice, once for what happens and once for how it sounds. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question.

My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see. He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head; And I see him jump before…

The speaker says his shadow was 'fast asleep in bed.' What is the real reason he has no shadow that morning? there is no sunlight yet to make a shadow · the shining dew has washed his shadow away · his shadow ran ahead of him into the garden · his shadow is hiding behind a buttercup
Answer: there is no sunlight yet to make a shadow
Which word rhymes with 'grow' in the second stanza? slow · ball · all · children

Each print picks one of the 30 passages written for this grade, and its questions come with it. With 30 to pick from, a second print can land on one you've used, so check the title before you hand it out.

What's on a 5th grade sheet

5th grade sheets draw from 30 passages, 40 to 199 words long. All 15 of 4th grade's passages are here too, plus 15 more.

Some of the titles: Windy Nights, by Robert Louis Stevenson, Brown and Furry, by Christina Rossetti, A Bird Came Down the Walk, by Emily Dickinson, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, by William Wordsworth, I'll Tell You How the Sun Rose, by Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who Are You? by Emily Dickinson.

Poem. Read the poem twice, once for what happens and once for how it sounds. Then circle the letter of the best answer for each question. One passage per sheet, with its own question set.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

After the first reading, ask your child to find one thing in the poem that acts like a person or gets called something it isn't. Then ask what the poet wants you to picture. For the stanza questions, have your child sum up each stanza in a few words on scrap paper. Read the notes back in order. They usually show how the poem moves, whether it travels somewhere or changes partway through.

Watch for: The speaker is not automatically the poet. A poem can speak as a child, a soldier or a tree, so the questions say 'the speaker' on purpose. Students read each line as a sentence and stop at the line break. The sentence runs until the punctuation does, and a line that spills into the next one is often the point. Naming a device is not the answer to a question about its effect. Rhyme, repetition or a stanza break is right only when the option says what it does to the poem.

Common questions about 5th grade poetry analysis

What figurative language is in 5th grade poetry?: Mostly metaphors, similes and personification, which the 5th grade standard, RL.5.4, names. A poem might say a kettle sings or call fog a gray blanket. The questions ask what the comparison makes you see or feel, not just what it's called.
Are the poems printed exactly as written?: Yes. They're classic public-domain poems by writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, copied with the poet's own line breaks and punctuation. Old spellings stay too, so cooky prints the way Vachel Lindsay spelled it. Each sheet ends with an answer key.

Related worksheets

Ready to print one?

Want a different passage? Print again. Each print picks one of the 30.

Aligned to Common Core RL.5.4, RL.5.5. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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