Simile
Quick answer: A simile is a comparison between two unlike things using like or as, such as brave as a lion. Learn how similes work and how to write fresh ones.
A simile is a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using a connecting word, most often like or as: her laugh was like gravel in a tin, the morning lay flat as an unpaid bill. The comparison is openly announced, which is what separates simile from metaphor, where one thing is simply called another.
Similes are among the oldest tools in poetry because they let a writer borrow the qualities of one thing to illuminate another while keeping both in view. The announced comparison creates a small moment of judgement in the reader: does the likeness hold? When it does, and especially when it surprises, the reward is a flash of recognition that plain description cannot produce.
The poem
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
Robert Burns, 'A Red, Red Rose' (1794)
How It Works
A simile has two parts: the thing being described, and the thing it is compared to. The connecting word, like, as, than, resembles, keeps them distinct, so the reader holds both images at once. The craft lies in the distance between the two terms. Compare them too closely, cold as ice, and the simile is dead on arrival; stretch too far and it snaps. The sweet spot is an unexpected pairing that proves itself instantly, as in an invented line: the ferry pulled away slow as an apology.
Similes can also carry tone. Comparing a politician's smile to a letterbox is comic; comparing it to a surgical incision is sinister. Same device, opposite weather.
Where You Will See It
Robert Burns opened his most famous song with a double simile, love likened to a June rose and then to a sweetly played melody, and two centuries of readers have not worn it out. Homer's epics run on similes so elaborate they earned their own term, the epic simile. Modern masters tend toward the sly and exact: Norman MacCaig could build an entire short poem from one perfect likeness, and Simon Armitage's comparisons often carry a whole poem's attitude in a single as.
What poets can take from this
- Ban the first comparison that comes to mind; it is usually secondhand.
- Test the distance: the two terms should be unlike in kind but alike in one sharp respect.
- Match the simile's register to the poem's tone, comic, tender or cold.
- Limit yourself to one or two similes per poem so each keeps its force.
- Read the simile without its connecting word; if it works as a metaphor too, you may not need the like.
Try it yourself
Write a poem of ten lines containing exactly three similes: one comparing something vast to something domestic, one comparing an emotion to a piece of machinery, and one you invent under no rules at all.
Questions
What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor?
A simile announces its comparison with a word such as like or as: the moon was like a coin. A metaphor drops the signal and asserts identity: the moon was a coin. Simile compares; metaphor fuses.
Does a simile always use like or as?
No. Those are the most common connectors, but than, resembles, the way, and as if all build similes too: quieter than snowfall, he moved the way rumours do.
What makes a simile cliché?
Overuse. Pairings like busy as a bee or cold as ice were once fresh but have been repeated until they carry no image at all. A good test: if you have heard the comparison before, the reader has too.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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