Which two sentences use definition 2 of the word literal? Poetry is a literal depiction of a poet's creative imagination. As a part of her study of the German language, Tania wants to do a literal translation of the German poet Goethe's works. After the robbery in the neighborhood, the police gathered everyone around and asked them to give a literal description of the events. In her report, Stacy provided the insurance agents with a literal account of what had happened to her car. Linguistics is more than just a literal study of a language.