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Met=
aphoric
Language
Si=
miles
Metaphors
Personification
Analogies
By
Wanda Lockwood
Monterey Peninsula College En= glish & Study Skills Center
Monterey, CA
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Wanda Lockwood
Monterey Peninsula College En= glish & Study Skills Center
Monterey, CA
Similes
&#=
8226;A
Simile suggests that one thing is like another thing:
–My
love is like a red, red, rose that’s newly sprung
in June. (Robert Burns)
Note: you do not, of course, have petals
and grow on a bush.
•However, you make my heart pitter patter with
joy--the same joy I feel when I see a rose.
•Therefore, I get th=
e same
feeling about you as I do a rose, so I am suggesting that you and
a rose affect me in a similar way--you share similar qualities =
of
beauty, grace, etc.
Now, for a less emotional example
. . .
The student fought like
a dragon for the right to skip homework!
Whoops! A snarling, snorting dragon is n=
o less emotional than a snarling, snorting =
student!
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0005_image012.gif")
Similar to an eagle, the jet soared above the clouds.
I work like a dog around her=
e!
Picture
a dog lying on the ground with its
tongue hanging out, panting from running
in the fields and chasing a wild rabbit. That’s how I want you to t=
hink =
about me when I’m working.
Thi=
s is
not a pretty sight, I might add.
Hop=
efully,
I don’t smell like the dog, too.
Similes give word clues to=
show
that things share characteristics
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•like
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•similar =
to
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•as
<=
/span>
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•in the s=
ame
way
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•as if=
3;
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•as thoug=
h
<=
span
class=3DBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-4.71%'>•-ish, -i=
c, -like,
-y,-ing
=
Some similes may be easy to miss, like those with=
the word endings -ish and -ic,=
-like,- y, and -ing=
:
Maria is an =
angelic
child. (Sweet, kind, loving, good--like an angel)
Mario
has a devilish sense of humor.=
(Full of
tricks--like a devil.
They
were a warlike people. (They have
violent characteristics sug=
gestive
of war)
Sandra is a =
willowy blond. (Tall and graceful--like a willow tree.)
I
spent the afternoon bumming <=
/span>around. (Acting
like
a bum, aimless.)
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0015_image016.gif")
Here is a simile from poe=
try,
“All morning” by Gregory Orr:
“All morning” by Gregory Orr:
All
morning the dream lingers.
I
am like thick grass
in
a meadow, still
soaked
with dew at noon.
This
is a very nice way to suggest that the
dream stays around in his memory just
the same way that dew stays on thick
grass, so--in a way--the poet is comparing
himself to grass and his dream
to dew.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0017_image018.gif")
“The Bath Tub”=
by
Ezra Pound
When the hot water giv=
es
out or goes tepid,
As a bathtub lined wi=
th
white porcelain,
So is the slow
cooling of our chivalrous passion,
O my
much praised but-not-altogether-satisfactory lady=
Clearly,
this guy’s love life is not what
it should be. Imagine sitti=
ng in a tub full of cold water and the chill you would get. That’s what =
is happening to his “passion.” This is a poetic way of saying that
<=
/span>object of his affection is lacking in warmth.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0033_image019.gif")
From
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes:
I’ve known rivers:=
I’ve
known rivers ancient as the world and older than that flow of
human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep=
like
the rivers.
The narrator of the poem wants the
reader to consider the timeless quality
of a river that flows for centuries and
wears away the soil until the river bed
lies deep in the ground. He suggests that his soul has that same strength and =
lasting quality.From
“My Papa’s Waltz” by
Theodore Roethke
Theodore Roethke
The
whiskey on your breath
Could
make a small boy dizzy;
But
I hung on like death<=
span
style=3D'font-size:113%'>;
Such
waltzing was not easy.
Death
is the one thing that’s permanent. It hangs in there just like this kid dancing with his father, who&nbs=
p;
has had a bit too much
to drink.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0069_image021.gif")
From “Design” by Robert
Frost:
I
found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On
a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like
a white piece of rigid satin cloth.
Assorted
characters of death and blight
Mixed
ready to begin the morning right,
Like
the ingredients of a witches’ broth--
A
snow-drop spider, a flower like a
froth,
And
dead wings carried like a paper k=
ite.
Note that this first stanza of the poem is held <=
/span>together by a series of similes that create
imagery--a picture in the min= d:
imagery--a picture in the min= d:
•<=
span
style=3D'font-size:88%'>moth-- “like a white piece of rigid satin
cloth.” This creates a visual image of the moth’s <=
/span>appearance.
•characters-- “like the ingredients of a
witches’ brew.&=
#8221; This suggests a feeling that som=
ething
is mysterious.
<=
/span>•flower-- “like a froth” creates anoth=
er
visual image of a w=
hite
flower resembling froth on liquid.
•dead wings-- “like a paper kite” again
creates a visual image to s=
how the
delicate nature of the wings.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0076_image023.gif")
Take a
look at the imagery in this
passage from “Alice” by
Paulette Chil= dress White:
passage from “Alice” by
Paulette Chil= dress White:
Alice, tall like a m=
an, with
soft wooly hair
spread out in tangles <=
u>like
a feathered hat
and her face oily and h=
er
legs ashy, whose
beauty I never quite
believed because she
valued it so little but=
was
real. Real like
wild flowers and unc=
ut
grass, real like the
knotty sky-reach of a
dead tree.
Let’s review the
imagery:
•like a man--since m=
en are,
on average, taller than women, this helps to create a visual image
of how Alice looks.
•like a f=
eathered
hat--helps you to see her hair
•ashy--since ashes a=
re
gray, this tells you about the color of her legs =
continue...
•like wild flowers an=
d uncut
grass--beautiful and growing free of constraints
•like the=
knotty
sky-reach of a dead tree--spare and strong, standing apart.
Add these all together and you have
<=
/div>
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the picture of a very interesting woman!<=
/div>
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0021_image025.gif")
=
Similes are often used in other fiction as well. From the short story “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence:
&=
#8220;Master
Paul comes and asks me, so I
can’t do more than tell him sir,” said Bassett, his face terribly serious, <=
u>as if
he were speaking of religious
matters.
This
suggests that Bassett is a=
lmost
reverent in his tone=
. Obviously, this
is not a joking matter. Using a simile like this is a nice way to show a person’s emotions or manners.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0024_image027.gif")
From “The Magic
Barrel” by Bernard Malamud:
“Tell me who =
she
is,’ he begged.
=
“It’s very
important for me to know.”
“She is not for you. She is a wild
one--wild, without shame. This is not
a bride for a rabbi.”
<=
/div>
“What do you mean wild?”
“Like an animal. Like a dog. For
her to be poor was a sin. This is why to me
she is dead now.”&=
#13;
This
is from a wonderful story about a matchmaker
trying to trick a rabbinical student
into marrying his wayward daughter. Here, he is clearly suggesting <=
/span>that she has not been virtuous--generally not a good selling point for a matchmaker to bring up.&nb=
sp;
The comparison
of
a woman to a dog is particularly unflattering.
From
“Rope” by Katherine Anne Porter:
On
the third day after they moved to the country he came walking back from the village carrying a basket of groceries and a twenty-four-=
yard coil of rope.
She came out to meet him, wiping
her hands on her green smock. Her
hair was tumbled, her =
nose
was scarlet with sunburn; <=
/span>he told her that she looked like a born country woman=
. His gray flannel shirt stuck to =
him,
his heavy shoes were
dusty. She assured him he <=
/span>looked li=
ke a
rural character in a play.&nb=
sp;
Obviously,
these are not coun=
try
people. The author
uses the descriptions of the clothes to show that the couple
are assuming the LOOK of someone born and raised
in the country.
![](3D"file:///C:/99063D13/similes_files/slide0037_image029.gif")
=
From To
Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee:
by Harper Lee:
“Well, the night =
of
November twenty-one
I was comin’ in f=
rom
the woods with a
load o’kindlin=
217;
and just as I got to the
fence I heard Mayella
screamin’ like a
stuck hog inside=
the
house--”
Eeeeeeek!!!