Metaphors and similes are two common figurative language devices.
They do a similar job: they compare people, places and things that are not alike. They just do it in different ways.
Metaphors compare two different things by saying that something is something else. For example, ‘Dan is a star’. Let’s have a look at some more metaphors.
‘My teacher is a dragon.’
‘The sun was an orange beach ball.’
In both metaphors, the writer told us that one thing, was something completely different. And what was the effect? Well you were probably able to build a pretty strong image in your mind to match what the author was talking about.
Some metaphors will make a comparison without actually mentioning what the person, place or thing is being compared to; they just give hints. These are often called ‘implied metaphors’.
Take this as an example: ‘The teacher breathed fire as he yelled.’ A dragon is not mentioned. But we can infer that the writer is meaning that the teacher is dragon because of the phrase ‘breathed fire’.
Here are some examples of metaphors from songs. For each, see if you can work out what’s being compared and what the writer is trying to tell you.
Now let’s look at similes. Whereas metaphors compare things by saying something is something else, similes compare by saying that something is similar to something else.
To do this, similes use the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. Looking out for these words is a good way to spot the difference between a simile and a metaphor.
Here’s a metaphor from earlier. By using the word ‘like’ or ‘as’, we can turn it into a simile.
‘The sun was like an orange beach ball.’ This is a simile. It doesn’t say that that sun /is/ a beach ball, it compares it to one by saying it’s similar to a beach ball.
‘She felt as free as the wind.’
The singer shone like a star.
Here are some examples of similes from songs. For each, see if you can work out what’s being compared and what meaning the writer is trying to convey.
Metaphors and similes are a great way of giving powerful descriptions. They help build strong imagery in the reader’s mind. They allow writers to say a lot, without using many words at all.
Leave an example of a simile or a metaphor in the comments below. Maybe it’s one you’ve heard in a song, or one you’ve come up with yourself. This is a dependent clause because it’s not a completed thought.
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