Metaphor / Simile / Idiom / Personification

What are they? A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using the words like or as. A metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things without the use of the signal words such as like or as. An idiom is a phrase that has a special meaning different from the actual meaning of the words. Personification – is when animals, elements of nature, and abstract ideas are given human qualities.

Examples. It’s raining cats and dogs He is singing like a blue bird The paintbrush was a magic wand in his hand. Stars are flowers in the meadow of the sky. The dessert tastes like foam rubber. My hair feels dry as straw. Are we going to split hairs over this? The rosy fingers of dawn. The stars smiled down on us.

Extended Metaphor This kind of metaphor may run through an entire work. In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, for example, the farm is compared to a nation, with different possible forms of governance. This comparison extends throughout the novel. Sometimes a poet will use an extended metaphor throughout a poem rather than simply as one single figure of speech in a poem.

Implied Metaphor Kennedy and Gioia offer a kind of metaphor (767) lacking the actual “to be” verb (is, am, are, was, were and other such forms of the verb “to be”) called an Implied Metaphor What is implied here about the speaker’s love? Oh, my love has petals and sharp thorns. Oh, I placed my love into a long-stemmed vase And I bandaged my bleeding thumb. And here, what is implied about the city and the subway? The subway coursed through the arteries of the city.