Similes
You might or might not know that a simile is a comparison between two things that are dissimilar in many ways, but are similar in a few, unobvious ways. Okay, now you know or re-know. Here comes the fire round –
How do you compare two objects in a simile?
Simple. With the use of ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘than’, or ‘resembles’.
Why do we use a simile?
Crazy question. Writers are always thinking of writing innovatively.
What’s the difference between a simile and a metaphor?
Smart! Here it goes –
Simile
In a simile, the objects compared are seen as identical (Dew drops covered the grass like pearls.) although they retain enough individuality not to be substituted with each other. That is why the use of like or as. Think of them as identical twins. They are similar in most things, but are not identical. Fire engulfed them like a monster. Fire has the qualities of the monster, but it is not a monster.
Metaphor
In a metaphor, the relationship between the two objects is so close that you can actually replace the one with the other. Think of them as clones.
Her blinking love
Instead of explaining her love as appearing and disappearing, I used the word blinking, which shares the characteristic of appearing and disappearing. From blinking, the reader will understand that she is neither fully in love with him nor fully out of love. (Check out the article ‘18 types of Metaphors’ for more info.)
Epic or Homeric similes
Epic similes are grand similes. They are used to elevate or intensify an object or a person to supernatural status. Homer used many epic similes in his works, Iliad and Odyssey.
Similes in The Iliad by Homer
“They swarmed like bees.”
“…when the west wind sweeps over a field of corn and the ears bow beneath the blast, even so were they swayed as they flew with loud cries towards the ships…”
“They surged to and fro like the waves of the Icarian Sea, when the east and west winds break from heaven’s clouds to lash them.”
“Shame on you,” he cried, “to stay talking here like children, when you should fight like men.”
“He was like a lion that some mountain shepherd has wounded, but not killed, as he is springing over the wall of a sheep-yard to attack the sheep.”
“He bestrode it as a lion in the pride of strength, with shield and spear before him and a cry of battle on his lips resolute to kill the first that should dare face him.”
“The Trojans, fierce as lions, were still rushing on towards the ships in fulfilment of the behests of Jove who kept spurring them on to new deeds of daring, while he deadened the courage of the Argives and defeated them by encouraging the Trojans.”
“—he holds his head high, and his mane streams upon his shoulders as he exults in his strength and flies like the wind to the haunts and feeding ground of the mares—”
“Agamemnon shed tears as it were a running stream or cataract on the side of some sheer cliff…”
“I have taken nothing by all my hardships—with my life ever in my hand; as a bird when she has found a morsel takes it to her nestlings, and herself fares hardly, even so many a long night have I been wakeful, and many a bloody battle have I waged by day against those who were fighting for their women.”
“He was like a lion that some mountain shepherd has wounded, but not killed, as he is springing over the wall of a sheep-yard to attack the sheep.”
“He bestrode it as a lion in the pride of strength, with shield and spear before him and a cry of battle on his lips resolute to kill the first that should dare face him.”
“The Trojans, fierce as lions, were still rushing on towards the ships in fulfilment of the behests of Jove who kept spurring them on to new deeds of daring, while he deadened the courage of the Argives and defeated them by encouraging the Trojans.”
“—he holds his head high, and his mane streams upon his shoulders as he exults in his strength and flies like the wind to the haunts and feeding ground of the mares—”
“Agamemnon shed tears as it were a running stream or cataract on the side of some sheer cliff…”
“I have taken nothing by all my hardships—with my life ever in my hand; as a bird when she has found a morsel takes it to her nestlings, and herself fares hardly, even so many a long night have I been wakeful, and many a bloody battle have I waged by day against those who were fighting for their women.”
Similes in The Odyssey by Homer
“And out he stalked as a mountain lion exultant in his power strides through the wind and rain and his eyes ablaze and he charges sheep or oxen or chases wild deer but his hunger drives him on to go for flocks, even to raid the best homestead.”
“But each time she slipped
out of my arms, like a shadow or a dream.”
“A high dark wave rose arching over them,
like a mountain, keeping them concealed,
the mortal woman and the god.”
“He murdered me,
and he was helped by my accursed wife,
after he’d invited me into his home
and prepared a feast for me, like an ox
one butchers in its stall.”
“And there’s no point in prattling like the wind.”
“They reached us in the morning, thick as leaves
or flowers growing in season.”
“…the Lotus-eaters,
who had no thought of killing my companions,
but gave them lotus plants to eat, whose fruit,
sweet as honey, made any man who sampled it
lose his desire to ever journey home…”
“At once he laced up
on his feet those lovely golden ageless sandals
which carry him as fast as stormy blasts of wind
across the ocean seas and boundless tracts of land.”
Shakespeare’s similes
“As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
So they doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.” – Macbeth
“Pray heavens he be;
For I have served him, and the man commands
Like a full soldier.” – Othello
“For that I do suspect the lusty Moor
Hath leap’d into my seat; the thought whereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards…” – Othello
“…And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.” – Hamlet
“And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Wouldst thou not stir in this.” – Hamlet
“I will fly, like a dog, the heels o’ the ass.” – Timon of Athens
“Without his roe, like a dried herring: flesh, flesh,
how art thou fishified!” – Romeo and Juliet
“No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts that meet me run away for fear…” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
John Milton’s similes in Paradise Lost
“Angel Forms, who lay entranced
Thick as autumnal leaves”
“He scarce had ceased when the superior Fiend
Was moving toward the shore; his ponderous shield,
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round,
Behind him cast. The broad circumference
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views
At evening, from the top of Fesolè,
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands,
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe.”
“…till on dry land
He lights– if it were land that ever burned
With solid, as the lake with liquid fire…”
Similes in The Aeneid by Virgil
“Before them they would whirl like sand,
And through the void air sweep.”
“So spake he, dropping tears like dew;…”
Simile in The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes
“Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!
Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!”
“…But she loosened her hair i’ the casement! His face burnt like a brand
As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast;
And he kissed its waves in the moonlight…”
Simile in Moby Dick by Herman Melville
“…and this round gold is but the image of the rounder globe, which, like a magician’s glass, to each and every man in turn but mirrors back his own mysterious self.”
Similes in The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie
“The town looked like a picture postcard torn up by an angry child and then painstakingly reassembled by its mother.”
“She’s bewildered by what he’s doing with his eyes, he’s closing first one, then the other, winking into the sky over Greenland like an old lecher making a pass.”
“Vina’s telephone call came like a blood transfusion.”
“. . . there isn’t a country prepared to give him asylum, not even Cuba, so he circles the globe like a ship carrying nuclear waste, unable to find a port.”
“Meanings beamed down from the satellite-crowded skies, meanings like amorphous aliens, putting out pseudopods like suction pads and sucking at her corpse.”
Similes in Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
“I shunned the face of man; all sound of joy or complacency was torture to me; solitude was my only consolation—deep, dark, deathlike solitude.”
“I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness.”
Simile in Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
“… staggered besides at her sudden vehemence of word and manner,
and got forth from the room, under this shower of curses, like a
beaten dog.
Simile in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
“They had come together unavoidably, like two ships becalmed near each other, and lay rubbing sides at last.”
“His eyes, of the usual blue, were perhaps remarkably cold, and he certainly could make his glance fall on one as trenchant and heavy as an axe.”
Extended simile in The Iliad by Homer
He was boiling as he spoke, and all his waters were seething. As a cauldron upon a large fire boils when it is melting the lard of some fatted hog, and the lard keeps bubbling up all over when the dry faggots blaze under it—even so were the goodly waters of Xanthus heated with the fire till they were boiling.
My very own similes, for your pleasure
After an hour’s journey, our jeep started roaring like a struggling animal.
The heat spread as quickly as an epidemic.
The hot wind charged into the room from the window, stung Kesha on the cheek, then comfortably spread out like an unassuming guest.
Mumbling, she turned back and started walking towards the door, her short, formless body swinging like a pendulum.
She stared at the cashews. They look like seashells on the sand, she thought, when a loud wail paralyzed her.
After long sleepless nights spent imagining the wicked rains fall down upon the silent earth like blood from the sky, she was well prepared for the onslaught.
Her baby steps reached the door, then started receding, then they were in the air flapping like terrified wings.
A bright white light flashed in front of her eyes like lightening, making dizzying waves of forgetfulness.
Like a sculptor, the rain has cut out her youthful figure into voluptuous art.
In the other room, like a well-nourished pet, fear came galloping towards Amma and bit her hard.
She regained her fetus position like a tiny warrior…
Like a familiar enemy, the knife flew towards him, its well-nourished glazed tip aimed at his throbbing heart.
He gurgled out a laugh like a baby.
Her long white premature candyfloss hair splayed around her head like an aura.
The water gushes past her like a victorious enemy.
“What?” she asked innocently, absently like a drunkard.
She bloomed around the room, the radio flickered with her praise, the T.V. barked of her successes, and she sat cross-legged like a pauper on a bamboo mat, staring out of the window at the color of the sky.
A tip
You will get large lists of similes on the net. They are good only to understand what similes are. Borrowing them is not a good idea. A simile that is already in view of the public is a dead simile. That shows how many there can be. So, start imagining.
