Metaphor & Figuration
Simile
Comparing things using a marker such as “like” or “as.” The comparison asks the reader to notice a particular resemblance.
"My love is like a red, red rose." — Burns
Don't confuse it with Metaphor. Drop the 'like' and it becomes metaphor. An epic simile extends the comparison over many lines with its own internal scene.
A similar example that does not qualify
I like the warning on this sign.
“Like” is a verb expressing approval here; it does not introduce a comparison.
Counterexample written for practice.
Compare sentences using Simile →Examples
The boat rocked like a cradle.
“Like” makes the comparison between boat and cradle explicit.
When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table
“Like” compares the evening to an anesthetized patient laid out on a table.
A possible effect: The medical comparison makes the evening seem motionless and unsettling.
Practice explaining this example →My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,
“As though” compares the speaker’s sensation to the imagined effects of drinking hemlock.
A possible effect: The comparison makes the numbness seem bodily and drug-like; it does not report an actual drink of poison.
Practice explaining this example →The warning spread like fire through dry grass.
“Like” introduces a comparison between the warning and fire.
A possible effect: Dry grass suggests how readily the warning passes from person to person.
Practice explaining this example →The empty station echoed like a cathedral.
“Like” explicitly compares the station’s sound to a cathedral’s.
A possible effect: The comparison makes the empty station seem spacious and solemn.
Practice explaining this example →I wandered lonely as a cloud
“As” introduces the explicit comparison between the solitary speaker and a cloud.
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as simile.
Personification 8 Anaphora 8 Metaphor 6 Parataxis 5 Apposition / Appositive 5 Passive Voice 4 Antithesis 4 Paradox 4
The rest of the family
Metaphor Catachresis Metonymy Synecdoche Personification Prosopopoeia Pathetic Fallacy Transferred Epithet / Hypallage Metalepsis Symbol Allusion Mythopoesis