Striking Similes, Page 4 (I-J-K)

This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com focuses on similes. Writers and speakers use similes to make descriptions more emphatic and vivid.


Similes, figures of speech that are a subset of metaphors, involve comparing one thing with another thing of a different kind, using the words "like" or "as". Writers and speakers use similes to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid.

Study these similes to better understand what these figures of speech are and how you might use them. Consider using these similes or those of your own creation in creative writing.

(A good source on why and how to use metaphors -- include their subset similes -- in creative writing is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab [OWL].)

I

I had grown pure as the dawn and the dew

I have heard the Hiddon People like the hum of swarming bees

I have seen the ravens flying, like banners of old wars

I saw a face bloom like a flower

I saw a river of men marching like a tide

I saw his senses swim dizzy as clouds

I wander'd lonely as a cloud

I was as sensitive as a barometer

I was no more than a straw on the torrent of his will

I will face thy wrath though it bite as a sword

Ideas which spread with the speed of light

Idle hopes, like empty shadows

Impassive as a statue

Impatient as the wind

Impregnable as Gibraltar

Impressive as a warrant of arrest for high treason

Incredible little white teeth, like snow shut in a rose

Infrequent carriages sped like mechanical toys guided by manikins

In honor spotless as unfallen snow

In that head of his a flame burnt that was like an altar-fire

In yonder cottage shines a light, far-gleaming like a gem

Instantly she revived like flowers in water

Intangible as a dream

It came and faded like a wreath of mist at eve

It cuts like knives, this air so chill

It drops away like water from a smooth statue

It pealed through her brain like a muffled bell

It poured upon her like a trembling flood

It racked his ears like an explosion of steam-whistles

It ran as clear as a trout-brook

It seems as motionless and still as the zenith in the skies

It set his memories humming like a hive of bees

It staggered the eye, like the sight of water running up hill

It stung like a frozen lash

It was as futile as to oppose an earthquake with argument

It was as if a door had been opened into a furnace, so the eyes blazed

It would collapse as if by enchantment

Its temples and its palaces did seem like fabrics of enchantment piled to Heaven


J

Jealousy, fierce as the fires


K

Kindle like an angel's wings the western skies in flame

Kindly mornings when autumn and winter seemed to go hand in hand like a happy aged couple

Kingdoms melt away like snow


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Editor's note: This section of EnhanceMyVocabulary.com is excerpted and adapted from Project Gutenberg's Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases, by Grenville Kleiser.


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