Simile
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
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