A SIMILE is a figure of speech where X is compared to Y , using the words AS or LIKE .
For example:
“My love’s LIKE a red, red rose.”
“He was AS cold AS ice.”
A METAPHOR is a figure of speech where X is compared to Y, and where X is said TO BE Y. A METAPHOR says that X IS Y.
For example:
“It IS raining cats and dogs.”
“Juliet IS the sun.”
“My bedroom IS a tip.”
“Her eyes ARE homes of silent prayer.”
Authors use metaphors and similes to create IMAGES .
Identify whether the following are similes or metaphors. BEWARE, two of them aren’t either one!
- “Juliet is the sun.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
- Tracy felt as sick as a parrot.
- “..the perfect sky is torn.” (Natalie Imbruglia, “Torn”)
- The traffic is murder.
- Tom is as deaf as a post.
- “Life’s but a walking shadow.” (Shakespeare, Macbeth.)
- She ran like the wind.
- I’m as light as a feather.
- “The sun’s a thief.” (Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.)
- Kitty is the apple of her mother’s eye.
- “Death lies upon her like an untimely frost.” (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.)
- My feet are as warm as toast.
- “There’s more life in a tramp’s vest.” (Stereophonics, “more life in a tramp’s vest.”)
- Tom is deaf.
- “Everyday is a winding road& ” (Sheryl Crow, “Everyday is a winding road.”)
- My eyes are blue.
- “England & is a fen of stagnant waters.” (Wordsworth.)
- “Their smiles, wan as primroses.” (Keats.)
- The cucumber is cool.
- Your beauty shines like the sun.
- “Love is blind, as far as the eye can see.” (The Spice Girls, “Too Much.”)
- She looked as pretty as a picture.
- James was as cool as a cucumber.
- His feet are as black as coal.
- “It’s been a hard day’s night / And I’ve been working like a dog.” (Lennon and McCartney.)
A Birthday
My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleur-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.
Christina G. Rossetti 1830-1894
You Fit into Me
you fit into me
like a hook into an eye
a fish hook
an open eye
Margaret Atwood (1939- )
You’re
Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A Common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark as owls do.
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fool’s Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.
Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our travelled prawn.
Snug as a bud and at home
Like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A creel of eels, all ripples.
Jumpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)