Poetry Study Guide: Poetry with Similes

Feel free to use these examples of poetry with similes to look smarter on your next assignment or class discussion. Many famous simile poems can be found on the Internet.

Poem: "Red Red Rose" by Robert Burns

Similes: 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. / As fair art thou, my bonie lass / So deep in luve am I...

Analysis: Burns compares his love to not just a rose, to not just a red rose, to not just a red, red rose, but a newly sprung red, red rose. He compares his love not to just a melody, nor to a sweetly played melody, but to a sweetly played melody in tune. He finishes by claiming his love as equal to her beauty (This line makes me wonder about the potential superficiality of his love.). These hyperbolic similes are tame compared to Burns' hyperbolic phrases that finish the poem. My personal feeling is that Burns is just trying to get some, but I could be wrong.

Poem: "Simile" by N. Scott Momaday

Simile: The poem is a simile poem, meaning the entire poem is a simile. Line 2 contains the comparison "and we are like the deer" and the rest of the poem describes in what manner his people are like the deer.

Analysis: Momaday writes of the fate of Native Americans, having himself grwon up on the Kiawa Indian reservation. The deer is portrayed as submissive, yet noble, able to break forth without warning.

Poem: "The Base Stealer" by Robert Francis

Similes: The base stealer is

• pulled both ways like a tightrope-walker
• bouncing tiptoe like a dropped ball
• or a kid skipping rope
• hovers like an ecstatic bird

Analysis: Francis' word choice--tightrope, tiptoe, taut, fingertips, teeters, skitters, tingles, teases-captures the intensity of a speedy base runner at first base during the late innings of a tight game. It's the word choice along with the similes that maks this poem masterful, not to mention the alliteration and consonance involving the "t" sound.

Poem: Sonnet CXXX by William Shakespeare

Similes: My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun (1). I think my love as rare / As any she belied with false compare (13-14).

Analysis: Shakespeare proves himself to be a master of irony as he employs what appears to be a negative reflection on his love in lines 1-12 only to turn it on its head

I've include a student's guide to mastering similes. It's as useful as a bucket in a rainstorm. The master of similes should be able to do the following.

1. Define simile: Give the definition. A simile is the comparison between two unlike things using like or as. This step can be accomplished by anybody willing to spend the 4 minutes necessary for memorization.
   
2. Identify similes: Good, but it still falls short of mastery.
3. Interpret similes: Explaining why the author chooses a particular simile and what effect it has on the poem's theme makes one nearly a master of simile.
   
4. Use similes: Being able to use similes to convey more clearly a specific message means mastery.