Simile

A simile (/ˈsɪməli/) is a figure of speech that directly compares two things.^[1][2] Although similes and metaphors are similar, similes explicitly use connecting words (such as like, as, so, than, or various verbs such as resemble),^[1] though these specific words are not always necessary.^[3] While similes are mainly used in forms of poetry that compare the inanimate and the living, there are also terms in which similes and personifications are used for humorous purposes and comparison.

Uses

In literature

• "O My Luve's like a red, red rose." "A Red, Red Rose," by Robert Burns.^[1][4]
• John Milton, Paradise Lost, a Homeric simile:^[5]
  

  As when a prowling Wolf,
  Whom hunger drives to seek new haunt for prey,
  Watching where Shepherds pen thir Flocks at eve
  In hurdl'd Cotes amid the field secure,
  Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the Fold:
  . . . . . . .
  So clomb this first grand Thief into God's Fold^[1]

  1. ^ Milton, John (1852). Henry John Todd, ed. The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors; and with Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton, Derived Principally from Original Documents in Her Majesty's State-paper Office. Rivingtons, Longman and Company. p. 62.

In comedy

Similes are used extensively in British comedy, notably in the slapstick era of the 1960s and 1970s. In comedy, the simile is often used in negative style: "he was as daft as a brush." They are also used in comedic context where a sensitive subject is broached, and the comedian will test the audience with response to a subtle implicit simile before going deeper.^[6] The sitcom Blackadder featured the use of extended similes, normally said by the title character. Examples include from the episode "Ink and Incapability" from Blackadder the Third, where Edmund Blackadder says to Prince George: "I have a horrid suspicion that Baldrick's plan will be the stupidest thing we've heard since Lord Nelson's famous signal at the Battle of the Nile: 'England knows Lady Hamilton is a virgin, poke my eye out and cut off my arm if I'm wrong.'"^[7]

See also

• Alliteration
• Analogy
• Description
• Homeric simile
• Hyperbole
• Hypocatastasis
• Metaphor
• Metonymy
• Personification
• Like

References

1. Murfin, Ross; Ray, Supryia M. (2003). The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd ed.). Bedford/St. Martins. pp. 447–448. ISBN 978-0312259105.
2. "Simile". Literary Terms. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
3. Harris, Robert A. (5 January 2010). "A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices". Virtual Salt. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
4. Burns, Robert. "A Red Red Rose". Glen Collection of Printed Music, Vol. 5. National Library of Scotland. p. 415. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
5. Murfin, Ross; Ray, Supryia M. (2003). The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2nd ed.). Bedford/St. Martins. p. 135. ISBN 978-0312259105.
6. "What Is A Simile?". Funny Similes!. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
7. "Ink and Incapability". Blackadder the Third. Series 3. Episode 2. 24 September 1987. BBC. BBC Two.

External links

• "On Substantiation Through Transitive Relations" is an Arabic manuscript from 1805 by Sayf al-Din al-Amidi which discusses similes