Week 1:  

Lesson on Simile, Metaphor, and Symbol

Similes, Metaphors, and Symbols are part of the poetic use of Figurative Language.  We find them everywhere - not only in poetry but in short stories, novels, and almost every form of creative narrative.  Along with "concrete imagery", symbolic language is the heart of art.  Please do take the time to review the sites I have gathered for you - these will help you focus on trying to use colorful language in your own writing!

A Simile is a comparison of two unrelated things that uses the words like, as, than, appears, or seems.  

Like as the waves make toward the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end. - William Shakespeare

Just to get in the swim with Similes, here is a cool page that has an amazing collection!  This list is useful for learning the kinds of things that can be compared - and it also reminds us that writing with Similes can make your work shine or make it "dead as a doornail" (ha-ha) if you employ comparisons that are tired and overused.  (You would certainly want to avoid all the ones listed here.)

The SaidWhat? page is has an array of examples.

Ted Nellen's CyberEnglish page has a good explanation.

A Metaphor uses the same comparison of two unrelated things, but it does not include "like" or "as."  

"My love is a red, red rose."  - the classic Metaphor.

A Symbol implies the comparison of two things, but it leaves the abstract object unnamed.  The Symbol of "apple pie" for example, is meant to represent a certain kind of 'folk' aspect of the United States - wholesome, rural, middle class, and so forth.  But the abstract part of the symbol is not named when "apple pie" is used in this fashion.

Here is a List of Metaphors!

As you finish refreshing your knowledge of comparative analogies, you might want to review this very simple List of Literary Terms (also from Ted Nellen's CyberEnglish page) so that we can use them in our discussions with one another.  Another very valuable site is Purdue's Online Writing Lab on how to use Metaphors in Creative Writing.  

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Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink, your Instructor, is a Professor of English in the School of Humanities and Languages

Irvine Valley College, Irvine, California