Simile : Direct comparison between two dissimilar objects.
Often, this comparison is introduced by ‘like’ or ‘as’.
Example : She is as courageous as a lion. James is like a feather; he blows where the wind beckons him.
Metaphor : Indirect comparison between two dissimilar objects.
Example : She is a lion. James is a feather.
B. Identify the simile(s) and metaphor(s) in the following extracts.
1. The sun rose on the seventh day in a symphony of suffused pinks and gold. Already we had been plodding forward for an hour in the pale light of the false dawn and dully I looked at the other shambling figures behind me and was struck with the unconquerable spirit of them all.
2. He turned the handle as he spoke, but the door did not yield. We threw ourselves against it; with a crash it burst open, and we almost fell headlong into the room. The Professor did actually fall, and I saw across him as he gathered himself up from hands and knees. What I saw appalled me. I felt my hair rise like bristles on the back of my neck, and my heart seemed to stand still…. With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white night-dress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress. The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten’s nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink.
