Similes in Literature: Definition and Examples

What Is a Simile?

Writers sure love figurative language. That's where they take something, maybe the lady they are trying to woo, and compare it to something else: a summer's day, a rose, a sunset.

It's pretty effective, when you think about it. Instead of telling a love interest that they are good looking, try telling them they are like a diamond. Diamonds aren't just beautiful; they are precious and rare, unique. Comparing someone to something else is a shorthand way to say lots of things at once, and it sounds poetic and clever.

In literature, such comparisons, usually using the words 'like' or 'as,' are called similes. 'Love like a sunset,' 'my love is like a red, red rose,' 'love like winter' are all similes that compare love to something more tangible. Often, a simile compares one aspect of a thing to another: 'as tall as a giraffe,' 'shine like a diamond,' 'safe as houses.'

Take this poem by Robert Burns, written in 1794:

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

This is good stuff. By comparing the object of his affection to a newly bloomed rose, we not only get a nice image, but Burns is able to describe his love as beautiful, youthful and fresh. By adding the simile about his love being like a 'melodie/ That's sweetly play'd in tune,' he's able to pay even more compliments: that she's pleasing to the senses, sounds nice and is generally awesome.

Similes vs. Metaphors

Similes are often confused with metaphors, which are another type of figurative language used by poets, songwriters and rappers alike. But instead of using the language of comparison the way similes do, metaphors describe things as if they were something else.

'Love is a battlefield' is one metaphor used in a song, while 'Love is blindness,' is used in another. See how metaphors equate one thing with another rather than comparing them? This makes a metaphor more of an all-or-nothing proposition than a simile.

When an author says, 'Bob is like a shadow,' she is saying that Bob has a few qualities that are shadow-like. Maybe he's quiet or sneaks up on you easily. If an author was to write, 'Bob is a shadow,' the comparison is much stronger. We would expect Bob to have a lot more qualities of a shadow. Maybe he's an especially mysterious person. Or we could even think of him as less than a complete person: 'Bob is a shadow of a man.'

Epic Similes

Epic similes are extended comparisons commonly found in epic poems - super-long, sprawling poetry that tells a story. Epic similes are sometimes called 'Homeric similes' after an Ancient Greek writer named Homer who used them when writing the epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey.

In The Odyssey, Odysseus travels for years and years, which makes sense given an odyssey is an especially long journey. Homer uses this epic simile to compare Odysseus (also known as Ulysses) to a farmer: