SIMILES AND METAPHORS

Dawg Sez 16

If this is your first visit to CwHD, a brief introduction is available. Just click on the CwHD Intro link. To return, simply click the Home link.

Zen Dawg dreams of medium size bone. Aummmmm ...

1974 Richard Stine (http://www.richardstine.com/)

'Course, size is relative ... well, everything's relative (except yer relatives), thanks a heap, Albert E. And to create distinctive comparisons, we all use figures of speech. Meaner than a junk yard dog, for example.

Circuitously, I arrive at similes and metaphors. (Stop me if you've heard this one.) A metaphor, as we all know, is a figure of speech with an implied comparison usually to something that cannot be literally true. Wallowing in self-pity.

Similes, on the other paw, are comparisons with a clue. They use 'like' or 'as' to signal the reader that what follows is not really true, but are used to suggest with a bit of emphasis. Similes are used to make a phrase more vivid or to add color without straining the reader's credulity. Sly as a fox is one.

Problems arise with metaphors when they become mixed. Some rather famous folk have come to grief with this one. Shakespeare, in Hamlet's off quoted soliloquy, uses this: " ... or take arms against a sea of troubles". One does not, of course, arm oneself against the onslaught of the sea. Works for Mr S, however. But unless you be him, best to keep yer metaphors consistent.

Or stick to similes. You'll be happy as a pig on ice.

Recommended website: the original Zen Dog