Simile: Difference between revisions

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A simile is a figure of speech the compares two unlike things, usually shown by using the words "Like" and/or "As".
Is a comparison of two unlike objects.  For a comparison to be considered a simile, the words "like" and/or "as" must be used.  "If the speaker omits 'like', or 'as', then it is a metphor"(Beckson 76).


'''Similes in Poetry'''
Another type of simile that not many people are familiar with is the epic Simile.  An epic simile is "an extended comparison wherein a subject is compared to something that is presented at such length or in such detail that the subject is momentarily lost sight of"(Barnet 44).  In "Paradise Lost", the author compares Satan walking into the garden of Eden to a vulture. 


Similes are used by Poets to compare things all of the time. For example:
"Here walk'd the fiend at large in spacious field. 
As when a vulture on Imaus bred,
whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Dislodgingfrom a Region scarce of prey
To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling Kids
On Hills where Flocks are fed, flies toward the springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams;
But in his way lights on the barren Plains
Of sericana, where Chineses drive
With Sails and Wind their cany Waggons light:
So on this windy Sea of Land, the Fiend
Walk'd up and down alone bent on his prey."
 
''Similes in Poetry'''


"O my Luve's like a red, red rose,  
"O my Luve's like a red, red rose,  
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'''Similes in Famous Songs'''
'''Similes in Famous Songs'''


Madonna is internationally known as a sex symbol that likes to frequently push the envelope and reinvent herself. What most people do not realize, is that two of her biggest songs are similes.
Madonna is internationally known as a sex symbol that likes to frequently push the envelope and reinvent herself. What most people do not realize, is that two of her biggest songs are similes.


'''Like A Virgin'''
'''Like A Virgin'''
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Next to mine"-Madonna
Next to mine"-Madonna


'''Like A Prayer'''
"When you call my name, it's like a little prayer,
I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there,
In the midnight hour I can feel your power,
Just like a prayer you know I'll take you there"-Madonna
'''Anna Begins'''


"This time when kindness falls like rain,
It washes her away and Anna begins to change her mind"
  -Counting Crows


"How like the winter hath my absence been." -William Shakespear
[[Literary Terms]]


"The drill sargent was tough as nails on the new recruits."
=== Works Cited ===
*Barnet, Berman, Burto.  "A Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic, and Cinematic Terms". 5th ed. Boston:  Little, Brown and Company 1971.
*Beckson, Karl and Arthur Ganz.  "Literary Terms; A Dictionary".  6th ed.  New York:  Noodle Press 1989

Latest revision as of 15:52, 23 February 2006

Is a comparison of two unlike objects. For a comparison to be considered a simile, the words "like" and/or "as" must be used. "If the speaker omits 'like', or 'as', then it is a metphor"(Beckson 76).

Another type of simile that not many people are familiar with is the epic Simile. An epic simile is "an extended comparison wherein a subject is compared to something that is presented at such length or in such detail that the subject is momentarily lost sight of"(Barnet 44). In "Paradise Lost", the author compares Satan walking into the garden of Eden to a vulture.

"Here walk'd the fiend at large in spacious field. As when a vulture on Imaus bred, whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, Dislodgingfrom a Region scarce of prey To gorge the flesh of lambs or yeanling Kids On Hills where Flocks are fed, flies toward the springs Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams; But in his way lights on the barren Plains Of sericana, where Chineses drive With Sails and Wind their cany Waggons light: So on this windy Sea of Land, the Fiend Walk'd up and down alone bent on his prey."

Similes in Poetry'

"O my Luve's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: O my Luve's like the melodie, That's sweetly play'd in tune."-Robert Burns

Similes in Famous Songs

Madonna is internationally known as a sex symbol that likes to frequently push the envelope and reinvent herself. What most people do not realize, is that two of her biggest songs are similes.

Like A Virgin

"Like a virgin, Touched for the very first time, Like a virgin, When your heart beats, Next to mine"-Madonna


Literary Terms

Works Cited

  • Barnet, Berman, Burto. "A Dictionary of Literary, Dramatic, and Cinematic Terms". 5th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company 1971.
  • Beckson, Karl and Arthur Ganz. "Literary Terms; A Dictionary". 6th ed. New York: Noodle Press 1989
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