What is the
difference between Metaphor and Simile?
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METAPHOR
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SIMILE
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Metaphor
is the most important and widespread figure of speech, in which one
thing, idea, or action is referred to by a word or expression normally
denoting another thing, idea, or action, so as to suggest some common quality
shared by the two.
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Simile is an explicit comparison between two different things,
actions, or feelings, using the words 'as' or 'like'.
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Eg. He
is a lion
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Eg.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
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In metaphor, the resemblance is assumed
as an imaginary identity rather than directly stated as a comparison:
referring to a man as that pig, or saying he is a pig is metaphorical, whereas he is like a pig is a
simile. Metaphors may also appear as verbs (a talent may blossom) or as
adjectives (a novice may be green), or in longer idiomatic phrases,
e.g. to throw
the baby out with the bath-water.
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A simple example is Robert Burns, "O my love's like a
red, red rose."
The following simile from Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" also specifies the
feature ("green") in which icebergs are similar to emerald:
And ice, mast-high, came
floating by,
As green as emerald.
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Reference: 1. The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Literary Terms
2. A Glossary of Literary Terms [M.H.Abrams]
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