Making similes work in your poems
A simile is an equation (“this” =
“that”) that uses “like” or “as”: O, my love is like a red, red rose. Just as in mathematics, in poetry, the
“equation” or = sign, states a comparison between two things that, on the
surface, or in our normal experience, might seem unrelated. Therefore, “love = rose.” But in simile, the difference is always
stressed, that is, expressed as obvious: love is SIMILAR TO a rose (but not a
rose).
Depending on how similar or dissimilar
the items in a simile are, the equation delivers more or less “force” or
surprise when you encounter it.
Sometimes that surprise can be comical or nonsensical, as in examples 1
and 2 below; slightly bizarre, as in example 5; or lyrical (example 6); or
non-visual (8, 9); or emotive (6, 10).
Sometimes, a simile can be rendered self-consciously, or, put a better
way, metatextually, where it expresses not only an image, but a (literary)
convention, as in example 11.
Similes can link together abstract and
concrete items. In fact, this is exactly
what poets sometimes try to do when they wish to create arresting and memorable
images with similes. Emily Dickinson
often made striking images by linking abstract and concrete words, as in
examples 12 and 13.
Examples
- A pencil is like a pantsuit
- A corncob is like a deck of cards, but a deck of cards is like a cake
- Bill is like a bull with a bell and a ball of gummy bears
- My dog is as big as a mouse and as small as a house
- My dog has fleas as loud as a rock band
- What was so blue like evenings in the fall or black like a bible
- The tailor rolling open his fabrics like a field marshal his plans
- My paper rustles, noisy as crows
- Rustling leaves—like the shuffling of cards
- The man under the bed . . . the man who is silent as dustballs riding the darkness
- My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
- Over and over, like a Tune—The Recollection plays
- . . .
The difference between Despair
And Fear—is like the One
Between the instant of a Wreck
And when the Wreck has been . . .
Figurative
language project: writing similes
Before we meet again next week, spend
some time in your poetry journal making similes of as many types as you can
think of: concrete to concrete, abstract to concrete, (abstract to abstract?),
nonsensical, emotive, bizarre. Make some
of your similes non-visual (e.g., describing sounds, smells, textures,
temperatures, tastes).
1.
Write at least 10
similes merely as similes, that is, using “like” or “as”
2.
Write one poem of
four lines or more that begins with a simile
3.
Be prepared to
share your experienced coming up with the similes
Making metaphor work in your poems
Like simile, metaphor is an equation
with two or more elements on either side of an = sign, only without the helpful
traffic signs of “like” or “as.” Some
metaphors relate two items that normally would appear to be unrelated (like fox
and sun in the third example below).
Relations between or among normally unrelated items can be rendered in
more or less conventional and “appropriate” settings (the fox and the sun are
linked within the larger conventional setting of nature—the brook). In other instances, metaphor is rendered more
subtly and without conventional context, as in examples 1 and 8 below (rain =
head/human being, but in what context? An arresting image!).
Metaphor also turns on the associations
that we have with words (and therefore depends on cultural conventions that we share
and understand more or less). So, when a
metaphor functions like an implied equation (“this” = “that”) between unlike
items and uses certain shared understandings to make the equation work, it is a
deeper, more complex kind of metaphor. Examples
1 and 4 below are good examples.
Examples
- A bohemia of sluggishness
- Sandbags gorged with the land
- The fox that runs behind the brook each evening is the setting sun
- He went into himself where shame makes its poor home
- Draco climbs the neighborhood pines and is gone
- Peabody Coal & Anthracite sleeps on the Illinois side this morning
- The fence, a scar along the exquisite thigh of this valley
- Even the rain was throwing back its head
Figurative
language project: identifying metaphors
For next week, in addition to any other
poetry writing you do, look for examples of metaphoric language in your
reading: among the books of poetry you have in your own library, in the
newspaper, on your cereal box, in advertisements, even in emails that you send
or receive during the week.
- Write down in your poetry journal at least 10 examples of metaphoric language
- For each metaphor, reduce the figure to its most basic equation (“this” = “that”)
- Be prepared to share your findings
