Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Simile: the explicit comparison of
two things (“like,” “as”)
• Metaphor: the implicit comparison
of two things
• Personification: endowing a nonhuman thing with human qualities
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Simile: the explicit comparison of
two things (“like,” “as”)
• “similar (things)”
– his argument withered like a grapevine in
the fall
– My love is like a red, red rose (Robert Burns)
– brave as a lion
– sly as a fox
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Simile: directs the reader’s attention
to the comparison itself
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good
news from a far country
(Proverbs 25:25)
A man whose son died in the war walks in
the street
like a woman with a dead embryo in her womb.
(Yehuda Amichai, "Memorial Day for the War Dead")
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Metaphor: the implicit comparison
of two things
• “be in a changed form”
– No man is an island (John Donne)
– Time is money
– Life’s a beach
– Life’s a yo-yo — it won’t stop going up and
down
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Metaphor: directs the reader’s
attention to the author’s point more
than the comparison itself
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts!
(Shakespeare, As You Like It)
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Personification: endowing a nonhuman thing with human qualities
• “putting a mask on something”
– Sometimes I think my car hates me.
– Homework in this class is eating me for lunch.
– The fog comes in on little cat feet. (C. Sandberg)
– And, where a portal opened, winds in ranks,
As though drawn up for battle, hurtled through
(Vergil, Aeneid 1.82-3)
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Personification: creates the sense
that the world is teeming with life
O beware, my lord, of jealousy!
It is the green-ey'd monster which doth mock
(Shakespeare, Othello)
The meat it feeds on.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets
and stoning those who are sent to you!
(Matthew 23:37)
Poetic Figures 3
ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS
• Personification: creates the sense
that the world is teeming with life
The moon methinks, looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,
Lamenting some enforcéd chastity.
(Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)