Simile Meaning, Examples, Characteristics, Types, Simile Poems, Function

• A comparison is made.
• The comparison is made between two unlike or dissimilar objects.
• The point of comparison is expressed or stated clearly.
• There must have the use of word of comparison, ‘like’, ‘as’.

 

 

 

like a rose	beautiful
like a volcano	explosive
like garbage	disgusting
like an animal	inhuman
like spaghetti	entangled
like dewdrops	sweet and pure
like gold dust	precious
like a tip	very untidy (tip = garbage dump

👉Metaphor: Definition and Examples, Types, Function

 

Simile Types

Generally speaking there are four types of smile :

1. Regular Simile
2. Common Simile,
3. Epic Simile
4. Sustained Simile

Regular similes are those in which the number of compared objects does not exceed two. There is only one set of comparisons (love-leaves or knowledge-star) in such instances as follow:

Simile in Poetry

a.
a. She did me take love easy, as the
leaves grow on the tree.  (Yeats)

b.    And this gray spirit yearning in desire

To follow knowledge, like sinking star,

Beyond the utmost bound of human thought (Tennyson)

 

Common Similes are those which we unconsciously use in our everyday speech, and by virtue of their frequent use they have lost their freshness and become hackneyed,

Examples: as dry as bone, as proud as peacock, as poor as Church mouse

Epic Similes are those in which compared objects are described at length, and they frequently go beyond the point of comparison and present us a complete poetic picture of some scene or incident suggested by the comparison. What is important about such simile is that the pictures are so greatly expanded that the main point of comparison is often lost or thrown to the background, and many irrelevant details are introduced. Since such similes are common in Homer, they are also known as Homeric Similes. Here follow some examples

Simile Poems

(i) The broad circumference of [Satan’s shield]

Hung on his shoulder like the moon, whose orb

Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views

Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,

Rivers, or mountains, in hor spotty globe. (Milton)

(ii) Like one that on a lonesome road

Doth walk in fear and dread,

And having once turned sound, walls on,

And turns no more his head;

Because he knows a frightful fiend

Doth close beside him tread. (Coleridge)

Sustained Similies are those in which two or more similies follow in
succession to illustrate same idea.

Simile Poems Examples

(a)  My heart is like a singing bird

Whoso nest is in a watered shoot ;

My heart is like an apple tree

Whose boughs are bent with thickest fruit;

My heart s like a rainbow shell

That paddles in halcyon sea.
(C. G. Rossetti)

(b) O my love’s like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

O my love’s like the melody

That’s sweetly play’d in tune. (Burns)

Function of Simile

The purpose of a simile is two-fold. It instructs while it appeals to our understanding. It pleases while it addresses to our heart. Dr. Johnson observes: “A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view and display it to the fancy with greater dignity, but either of these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it.”

Simile and Metaphor

Both the simile and the metaphor institute a comparison or show a similarity between two things or subjects, different in kind. But the comparison is not made in the same way in them. In the former, the likeness is clearly shown by the employment of the words like, as, like, etc. But in the metaphor, the resemblance between the things or subjects is kept implied.

 

Simile Worksheet