Simile
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A simile is a comparison of two unlike things, typically marked by use of "like", "as" or "than". Examples include "the snow was as thick as a blanket", or "she was as smart as a crow".
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[edit] Usage of a simile
| “ | Ay, as Aeneas, our great ancestor/Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder/the old Anchises bear... | ” |
Similes are widely used in literature, both modern and ancient.
Aristotle said that good similes give an "effect of brilliance", but he preferred the use of metaphor, as it was shorter, and therefore more attractive in creative usage.
Homer made famous the use of 'epic simile', one from which a whole tradition of european extended simile was born. A true epic simile involves comparison of one composite action with or in relation with another composite action. Virgil and Dante refined the epic simile in order to develop with precision a multiplicity of comparisons with a single extensive image or action.
Milton avoids digressive tendencies in his choice of illustrative material, choosing his imagery with an almost mathematical subtlety, in terms of his use of the epic simile.
John Keats shows his craftmanlike use of skill in Hyperion where he compares the fallen gods to the Stonehenge.
For example, works of William Shakespeare use similes, frequently made using historical references. Various similes are found in, for example, Julius Caesar, one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.
Similes are also widely used in modern literature. However, unlike the slightly scholarly usage of references as in ancient texts, they tend to be more spontaneous and expressive. Similes can also be read as a formulated allegory. Day to day language also incorporates similes, such as 'He's as sly as a fox' or 'She's dumb as a door knob"
[edit] Simile vs Metaphor
Usually similes are marked by use of the words "like" or "as". However, "The snow blanketed the earth" is also a simile and not a metaphor because the verb "blanketed" is a shortened form of the phrase "covered like a blanket". Metaphors differ from similes in that the two objects are not compared, but treated as identical: The phrase "The snow was a blanket over the earth" is a metaphor. Some would argue that a simile is actually a specific type of metaphor.[1] However, only some similes can be contracted into metaphors, and some metaphors can be expanded into similes. It is said to blend with the 'prosaic' metaphor of comparison.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ See Joseph Kelly's The Seagull Reader werd up(2005), pages 377-379
