PO1 - Lesson: Comparisons within a Text - Similes

Purple and orange spheres on a balance provide a metaphor for comparisonComparisons within a Text - Similes

In addition to words and phrases, poets also use comparisons to enhance and create overall meaning. There are two central devices used for comparisons in poetry: similes and metaphors.

Our first focus will be on the use of similes.

Similes

A simile uses the word "like" or "as" to liken two objects or concepts to each other. Similes compare two different things to transfer the traits or qualities of one to the other. In a simile, the thing being compared is the main subject; the thing to which it is being compared is the comparison subject.

A simple example using our image to the right: the blue orb sat like a lead weight on the scale.

Wilford Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" - Similes

Read the following poem "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilford Owen. As you read, look for the use of "like" and "as" in the poem. The title of the poem is from the Latin phrase Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori and comes from the Roman poet Horace. It means: It is sweet and proper to die for one's country. You'll see the full Latin phrase used at the end of the poem.

Image note: This is a photograph from World War I, showing French troops in an occupied German trench. The exact date of the photograph is unknown but it was taken between 1914 and 1916.

Soldiers in a trench during WWI.

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilford Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" - Self-Check

It is often helpful to create some type of graphic organizer like the following to help isolate your thoughts about a poem. Also, this type of organizer can be created very quickly when taking the AP Exam and will help you to remember that everything needs to be tied back to overall meaning and effect. The first simile has been used as an example.

Once you have identified similes, the next step is to relate them to the overall meaning. A simplified theme for the poem might be that "war is awful." With this idea in mind, the phrase "like old beggars" refers to the soldiers and makes them look like worn-out older men. This is contrary to expectations because usually soldiers are portrayed as younger, stronger men. By making them older and comparing them to "beggars," the speaker is showing us how devastating war can be to the individual.

Try to write 2-3 sentences for the other similes that imitate the pattern of analysis in the first one.

Similes and Meaning in "Dulce et Decorum Est"
Simile Relationship to Overall Meaning and Effect

"like old beggars"

This refers to the soldiers and makes them look like worn-out older men. This is contrary to expectations because usually soldiers are portrayed as younger, stronger men. By making them older and comparing them to "beggars," the speaker is showing us how devastating war can be to the individual.

"coughing like hags"

 

"and stumbling/ And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime."

 

 

"His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin"

 

"The blood . . . Obscene as cancer"

 

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