A Simile is a figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two unallied or different things or ideas.
This is an example of figure based on similarity more specifically simile in which an open and explicit comparison is made between two unallied elements- ‘life’ and ‘tale’. The point of comparison is clear- ‘tediousness’. This is clearly shown by ‘as’.
Till by broad spreading , it disperses to nought.” – (Shakespeare)
3) “Drive my dead thoughts over the universe like withered leaves to quicken a new birth.” – Shelley
Simile Types
Generally speaking there are four types of smile :
- Regular Simile
- Common Simile,
- Epic Simile
- Sustained Simile
Regular similesare 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 Similesare 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 peaco*ck, 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
At evening, from the top of Fesols,
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.
A simile, thus, differs from a metaphor only in form, and not in content. What is distinctly expressed in the simile, is only implied in the metaphor.
A metaphor is, in fact, a compressed simile, and, in the same way, a simile is an expanded metaphor. The best test of a metaphor is found in its expansion into a faultless simile and vice versa.
Thus, the example- “The eldest son is the star of the family — can be expanded thus–‘Just as a star is bright, so the eldest son is the bright member of the family. This is the form of a simile. Similarly, the metaphor in the sentence, “He is the pillar of the state,” can be expanded into a simile thus : “Just as a pillar supports a building, so he supports the state.” Again, the simile in the expression-“Red as a rose is she”–can be compressed into the metaphor –“She is a red rose.”
Simile Worksheet
1. He doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus. (Shakespeare)
2. The Champak odours fall
Like sweet thoughts in a dream. (Shelley)
3. Like a child form the womb, like a ghost from the tomb
I arise and unbuilt it again. (Shelley)
4. And we drop like the fruits of the trees.
