1.0 : DEFINITION OF LITERATURE DEVICE
1.1 : SIMILE
Simile is a Literature Device that says that one thing is like another different thing. We use similes to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid.
We often use the words as...as and like with similes.
Example of Common patterns for similes, are:
• something [is*(stative verb)*] AS adjective AS something
His skin was as cold as ice.
It felt as hard as rock.
She looked as gentle as a lamb.
• something [is*(stative verb)*] LIKE something
My love is like a red, red rose.
These cookies taste like garbage.
He had a temper (that was) like a volcano.
• something [does* (action verb)*] LIKE something
He eats like a pig.
He smokes like a chimney.
They fought like cats and dogs.
Here are some more examples of well known similes:
[is] AS adjective AS something meaning
as blind as a bat completely blind
as cold as ice very cold
as flat as a pancake completely flat
as gentle as a lamb very gentle
as light as a feather very light
as old as the hills very old
as sharp as a knife very sharp
as strong as a bull very strong
as white as snow pure white
as wise as an owl very wise
[is] LIKE something possible meaning (depending on context)
like a rose beautiful
like a volcano explosive
like garbage disgusting
like an animal inhuman
like spaghetti entangled
like dewdrops sweet and pure
like golddust precious
like a tip very untidy (tip = garbage dump)
like a dream wonderful, incredible
like stars bright and beautiful
[does] LIKE something meaning
to drink like a fish to drink a lot
to eat like a bird to eat very little
to eat like a horse to eat a lot
to eat like a pig to eat impolitely
to fight like cats and dogs to fight fiercely
to sing like an angel to sing beautifully
to sleep like a log to sleep well and soundly
to smoke like a chimney to smoke heavily, all the time
to soar like an eagle to fly high and free
to work like a dog to work very hard
Note that with the AS...AS pattern, the first AS is sometimes suppressed, for example:
• His skin was cold as ice.
The above patterns of simile are the most common, but there are others made with adverbs or words such as than and as if, for example:
• He ran as fast as the wind.
• He is larger than life.
• They ran as if for their lives.
Similes can include other literary devices. For example, "He ran like greased lightning" is a simile that includes hyperbole (greased lightning).
Similes often make use of irony or sarcasm. In such cases they may even mean the opposite of the adjective used. Look at these examples:
• His explanation was as clear as mud. (not clear at all since mud is opaque)
• The film was about as interesting as watching a copy of Windows download. (long and boring)
• Watching the show was like watching paint dry. (very boring)
Similes also are often found (and they sometimes originate) in poetry and other literature. Here are a few examples:
• A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle - Irina Dunn
• Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh - Wilfred Owen
• Death has many times invited me: it was like the salt invisible in the waves - Pablo Neruda
• Guiltless forever, like a tree - Robert Browning
• Happy as pigs in mud - David Eddings
• How like the winter hath my absence been - William Shakespeare
• As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Jubilant as a flag unfurled - Dorothy Parker
• So are you to my thoughts as food to life - William Shakespeare
• Yellow butterflies flickered along the shade like flecks of sun - William Faulkner
Popular songs, too, make use of simile:
• A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle - U2
• Cheaper than a hot dog with no mustard - Beastie Boys
• I must do what's right, as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti - Toto
• It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog - The Beatles
• Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
• Like a bat outta [out of] hell - Meat Loaf
• My heart is like an open highway - Jon Bon Jovi
• These are the seasons of emotion and like the winds they rise and fall - Led Zeppelin
• Thick as a Brick - Jethro Tull
• You are as subtle as a brick to the small of my back - Taking Back Sunday
1.2 : METAPHOR
Metaphor comes from the Greek word metapherin (meaning "transfer"). It is a literature device that says that one thing is another different thing. This allows us to use fewer words and forces the reader or listener to find the similarities.
The simplest form of metaphor is: "The [first thing] is a [second thing]."
Look at this example:
• Her home was a prison.
In the above sentence, we understand immediately that her home had some of the characteristics of a prison. Mainly, we imagine, she could not leave her home. She was trapped inside. Why it was a prison we do not know, but that would be clear from the context--perhaps her husband forced her to stay at home, perhaps she was afraid of the outside. We don't know, but the rest of the story would tell us. What is important here is that in five simple words we understand a lot about her environment, how she felt and how she behaved. In this sentence, "prison" is a metaphor.
Look at another example:
• George is a sheep.
What is one characteristic of sheep? They follow each other. So we can imagine that George is a follower, not a leader. In this sentence "sheep" is a metaphor.
Metaphors are very common in everyday language. But poets also like to use metaphors. In the following famous verse (from The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes), can you spot three metaphors in the first three lines?
The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
And the highwayman came riding--
Riding--riding--
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.
Look at these examples of metaphors with sample sentences and meanings:
Metaphor example Metaphorical sense Original sense
I'm not an angel, but I wouldn't behave like that. exemplary person a spiritual being believed to be a messenger of God
America is a melting pot. place where different peoples, styles and cultures are mixed together a container in which metals or other materials are melted and mixed
John is a real pig when he eats. greedy person a four-legged animal kept for meat (pork)
My father is a rock. very strong or reliable person a hard, mineral material made of stone
How could she marry a snake like that! traitor a long, limbless reptile (eg: cobra, python, viper)
The policeman let him off with a yellow card. warning (in soccer) a yellow card that the referee shows to players when cautioning them
All the above metaphors (the simplest form) are nouns. But there are other ways of making metaphors, for example with verbs or adjectives. Here are some examples:
Metaphor example Original sense of the word (example)
The committee shot her ideas down one by one. Anti-aircraft guns shoot down planes.
The private detective dug up enough evidence to convince the police to act. Dogs like to bury bones and dig them up later.
He broke into her conversation. Burglars break into buildings.
The new movie was very popular. People flocked to see it. Birds flock together before they migrate.
His head was spinning with ideas. Some computer hard drives spin at over 10,000 revolutions per minute.
Reading that book kindled my interest in politics. You need to start with twigs and small branches when you kindle a camp fire.
Tim lost his job after a heated argument with his boss. We have a heated swimming pool.
The new car's sexy design increased sales for the company. Some women think that lipstick makes them look sexy.
He was dressed rather vulgarly in a loud checked suit. I can't hear you because the radio is too loud.
It wasn't long before their relationship turned sour. Sour food has an acid taste like lemon or vinegar.
Difference Between Metaphor and Simile
Both similes and metaphors link one thing to another. A simile usually uses "as" or "like". A metaphor is a condensed simile, a shortcut to meaning, which omits "as" or "like." A metaphor creates a relationship directly and leaves more to the imagination. With simile A is like B. With metaphor A is B.
SIMILE METAPHOR
Your eyes are like the sun. You are my sunshine.
He eats like a pig.
He lives like a pig. He is a pig.
Dead Metaphors
In the phrase "to grasp the concept" the physical action "to grasp" is used as a metaphor for "to understand" (which is non-physical). But this phrase has been used so often that most English speakers do not have an image of the physical action in their mind. This metaphor has died; it is a "dead metaphor".
Mixed Metaphors
The awkward use of two or more different metaphors at the same time is normally best avoided. It creates conflicting images in the reader or listener's mind, reduces each metaphor's impact, and generally causes confusion. Look at this example:
• America is a melting pot where new ideas are kindled.
1.3 : PERSONAFICATION
Personification is a literature device that gives the qualities of a
person to an animal, an object, or an idea.
It is a comparison used to show something in an entirely new light, to communicate a certain feeling or attitude towards it and to control the way a reader perceives it.
Example of Personification in a simple sentence is:
• "Wind yells while blowing", example of personification because wind cannot yell. Only a living thing can yell.
• “Necklace is a friend”, example of personification because Necklace is a thing, and necklaces cannot be friends. Only living things can have friends.
Example of Personification in poem is:
SNOW - By Jake
Snow speaks to the people its
falling above in the glooming
sunlight.
Its white sparkling voice
echoes
as it falls through
the air.
STARS - By Alex
Stars, bring me up with you
Bring me to the place
you sleep.
How do you do it?
Bring me to your home.
Bring your thoughts
to me.
Share them
with me.
The Train - By Emily Dickinson
I like to see it lap the miles,
And lick the valleys up,
And stop to feed itself at tanks;
And then, prodigious, step
Around a pile of mountains,
And, supercilious, peer
In shanties by the sides of roads;
And then a quarry pare
To fit its sides, and crawl between, Complaining all the while
In horrid, hooting stanza;
Then chase itself down hill
And neigh like Boanerges;
Then, punctual as a start its own,
Stop-docile and omnipotent-
A stable door.
The Cat & The Fiddle - By Mother Goose
Hey diddle, Diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon;
The little dog laughed
To see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.
2.0 : POEM “DULCE ET DECORUM EST” BY WILFRED OWEN
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest3 began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots4
Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.
Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9 . . .
Dim, through the misty panes10 and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,11 choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.15
8 October 1917 - March, 1918
3.0 : ANALYSIS OF THE POEM
The major theme of "Dulce et Decorum Est" is associated with its Latin title, which is taken from a work by the poet Horace in 65 B.C.. The full phrase is "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori," which can be loosely translated, "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. Owen consciously works to undermine this noble statement of patriotism by showing the ignominy of death in modern war.
The reader who has some knowledge of classical literature, especially epic poetry and the heroic odes which celebrate great warriors who fall in battle while serving their nation, will immediately see Owen's strategy. The men he describes in this war are anything but noble. Instead of confronting their foes in single combat, the soldiers in Owen's poem are retreating from the front lines. They are tired, both physically and psychologically. They are almost deaf to the sounds of the falling gas bombs that could take their lives at any moment.
Unlike the heroes of earlier wars, these soldiers do not face death at the hands of a recognizable enemy who bests them with sword or spear. Instead, death comes from afar; worse still, it comes impersonally in the form of an insidious poison that snuffs out life in a brief instant of agony, which Owen contrast subtly with the "ecstasy of fumbling" that occurs when the men try to put on their masks. These soldiers utter no death-bed speeches, as did their classical counterparts whom Horace and earlier poets celebrated. Instead, the only sounds emitted by those under gas attack are incoherent yells and after death, a "gargling" from "froth-corrupted lungs" that occurs as the corpse of the soldier too slow to put on his mask in time is carted off to burial.
Owen served as a lieutenant in the British Army during World War I; ironically, he was killed shortly before the armistice was signed. Having grown up in England at the end of the nineteenth century, Owen would have come to the war imbued with a sense of patriotism, as the British had gone to great lengths to convince themselves that they were engaging in a noble conflict to save humankind. The graphic realities of the battlefield did not match the glorious descriptions of war prevalent in the literature Owen and his educated officer comrades had read. There was no glory in dying from gas poisoning. What Owen seems to have realized is that death by gassing was a metaphor for all death in modern warfare; the notion of a glorious death was simply a lie. "Dulce et Decorum Est" graphically depicts a central irony of death on the modern battlefield: No matter how noble the cause may be, the individual soldier can expect nothing but misery in combat and an ignominious end should he be unfortunate enough to become a casualty.
4.0 : LITERATURE DEVICES IN THE POEM
SIMILE:
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12
PERSONIFICATION :
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues
To children ardent14 for some desperate glory,
IMAGERY :
we cursed through sludge
We limped on, blood-shod
the white eyes withering in his face
the blood/Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs.
like old beggars under sacks
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