Poetic Figures 3 ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS Simile : the explicit - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Poetic Figures 3

ANALOGIES AND COMPARISONS

• Simile: the explicit comparison of

two things (“like,” “as”)

• Metaphor: the implicit comparison
• f two things
• Personification: endowing a non-

human 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
• f 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 non-

human 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 The meat it feeds on.

(Shakespeare, Othello)

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)