Simile
Simile
Simile:
The word 'simile' comes from the Latin similis 'like', and means likeness. A simile is an explicit statement of likeness between two different things or actions. "It consists of placing two different things side by side and comparing them with regard to some feature common to both." (Martin). For example, He is as ferocious as a tiger. In this simile, ‘he’ is compared to a ‘tiger’. Now the ‘tiger’ and ‘he’ are different things, but are alike in possessing one characteristic in common, namely ‘ferocity’. He moved like a ghost-here he resembles the ghost in one particular, namely walking stealthily.
Every simile must have, therefore, two essential elements:-
(a) The things or actions must be different. Thus in "He is as ferocious as his wife" there is no simile, because he and his wife are of the same kind. In the same way, "he moved like his brother" is only a comparison, and not a simile.
(b) The point of similarity between the two things compared must be clearly stated. That is why a simile is always introduced by such words as ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Examples
1.
The bride hath paced into the hall.
Red as a rose is she.
-Coleridge
2.
The water like a witch's oils
Burnt green, and blue and white.
-Coleridge
3.
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb.
I arise and unbuild it again.
-Shelley
4. I could lie like a tired child.
-Shelley
5.
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe.
Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth.
-Shelley
6.
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell.
To toll me back from thee to my sole self.
-Keats
7. The child shows the man, as morning shows the day.
-Milton
8. I wandered lonely as a cloud.
-Wordsworth
9.
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies.
When a new planet swims into his ken.
-Keats
10. When like a roe I bounded over the mountains.
-Wordsworth
11.
Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea.
-Wordsworth
12.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale.
Vexing the dull air of a drowsy man.
-Shakespeare
13. As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.
14.
The holy man is quiet as a nun.
Breathless with adoration.
15. Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.
16. And we drop like the fruits of the tree.
-Meredith
Common Similes:
The following are some common similes of everyday speech: - As black as pitch; as proud as peacock; as clear as crystal; as good as gold; as old as the hills; as pale as death; as white as a sheet; as swift as an arrow; as greedy as a pig; as dry as dust; as deaf as an adder, etc.
Kinds of Simile:
There are two kinds of simile - (1) Simple simile and (2) epic simile.
(1) Simple simile: In a simple simile the resemblance between two different things is expressed briefly and directly without enlargement.
(2) Epic simile: An epic simile is resorted to compare, as in a simple simile, dissimilar objects, but the point of likeness is elaborated to an extent as to give birth to a short descriptive poem in itself. This type of simile is also known as developed simile or Homeric simile.
The examples of epic simile:-
1.
His legions, Angel forms, who lay entranced
Thick as ×××××××××
×××××××××××× scattered sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orison armed
Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves overthrew
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry
While with perfidious hatred they pursued,
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld,
Front the safe shore their floating carcases
And broken chariot wheels, so thick bestown,
Abject and lost, lay these, covering the flood.
-Milton
2.
Then fly our greetings, fly our speech and similes,
-As some grave Tyrian trader, from the sea,
Descried at sunrise an emerging prow
Lifting the cool-haired creepers stealthily,
The fringes of a southward-facing brow,
Among the Aegean isles;
And saw the merry Grecian coaster come,
Freighted with amber grapes, and China wine,
Green bursting figs, and tunnies steep'd in brine;
And knew the intruders on his ancient home.
The young light-hearted masters of the waves;
And snatch'd his rudder; and shook out more sail,
And day and night held on indignantly,
O'er the blue, Midland waters with the gale,
Betwixt the Syrtes and soft Sicily,
To where the Atlantic raves
Outside the western straits, and unbent sails,
There, where down cloudy cliffs, through sheets of foam,
Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come;
And on the beach undid his corded bales.
-Arnold
Simile and Comparison:
A simile should be distinguished from a comparison. In a simile merely the resemblance between two different objects is stated, while in a comparison all the various points of similarity are brought out.
Simile-
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.
-Wolfe
Comparison-
Kings are like stars-they rise and set-they have,
The worship of the world, but no repose.