Back to Basics: Simile and Metaphor

Two of the most basic forms of figurative language are similes and metaphors. Both are embraced by poets around the globe and throughout time. Many of the examples in today's lesson are pulled from poetry, but you can find similes and metaphors used quite often in prose as well.

I am writing about them together because they are both means of comparing one thing to another in order to better illustrate an idea. However, one major difference sets them apart.

Simile
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A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things using "like" or "as."

"Oh, my love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June," is a rather famous example of a simile by Robert Burns.

See how Burns uses a newly blossomed rose to describe his love? The fact similes use an indicator word, "like" in this case, to make the comparison makes them one of the easiest forms of figurative language to recognize.

Yet, we can sometimes encounter or even use similes without noticing. Think about some rather cliche sayings you might hear people use to describe themselves or others all the time.

Slept like a baby.

Strong as an ox.

Sly as a fox.

Like shooting fish in a barrel.

These are all similes, but we hear them so often that fact can be hard to remember.

What about the Southern tendency toward creative similes that's become something of a running gag in American pop culture thanks to shows like The Beverly Hillbillies?

Why I'm as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

He ran through here like a bull in a china shop!

​Again, most if not all of them are similes.

Metaphor
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A metaphor is a figure of speech that applies a word or phrase to describe an action or noun to which it is not literally applicable. It acts much like a simile, but it does not include "like" or "as."

Here are a few famous examples.

"I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine." - John 10:14.

(Speaking of love.) "Oh no! It is an ever-fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken; it is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken." - Shakespeare Sonnet CXVI.

"Conscience is a man's compass." - Vincent Van Gogh.

Because they do not use indicator words the same way similes do, metaphors can be a bit more difficult to pick out. However, because of that same "lack," they tend to be favored by writers because they can "blend" into the rest of the story. Similes work well, but the presence of "like" or "as" within them can make them stand out, creating a jarring effect in a work of literature. Additionally, they are so common within English, similes themselves have almost become a cliche, which is another reason they aren't used as often within modern literature.

Extended Metaphor
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When a metaphor is carried beyond a sentence or two, it is referred to as an extended metaphor.

As mentioned above, metaphors can blend seamlessly into a work, which makes them popular methods of incorporating themes and motifs into poetry and prose alike. They may be extended to encompass a scene or even entire novels to great effect.

Take Melville's Moby Dick for example. The novel itself is an allegory warning about the dangers of obsession with the whale itself as a metaphor for the self-destruction unchecked obsession can cause. If Ahab had not obsessed over killing the whale that took his leg, no further harm would have come to him or his ship and crew. Yet, no matter what warnings he was given, he continued to pursue his obsession, dooming himself and harming those around him in the process.

Shakespeare was rather fond of metaphors, though he did not often stretch them out past a single scene.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." - As You Like It

"Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry, 'Hold, hold!" - Macbeth.

​"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, and summer's lease hath all too short a date." - Sonnet XVIII

The problem with metaphors, those that are extended in particular, is they can be easy to mangle. If you go to use a metaphor in a piece, try to avoid "mixing" metaphors. Once you start down one metaphorical track, see it to the end. Another may be picked up later in the piece, but you do not want to shift from making one comparison to another without some kind of transition, or you risk confusing your point instead of making it clearer.

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There you have the basic definition, usage, and differences for similes and metaphors. If you have comments to add or questions, please reach out in the comment section below. I try my best to answer any I receive within twenty-four hours.

Please join me again in two weeks for another lesson on figurative language.

And as always, an elementary version of today's lesson may be downloaded here.