Simile

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An author friend of mine once described sim­i­le as a step­ping stone to metaphor, and I think she’s right. It explains, at least in part, why as poets grow and devel­op, their reliance on this poet­ic device dimin­ish­es as their use of metaphor increas­es. I’ve cer­tain­ly noticed the shift in my poet­ry, over the decades. In prepar­ing this sec­tion of the blog, it proved espe­cial­ly chal­leng­ing to find exam­ples of sim­i­les in my own col­lec­tions, and nov­els in verse. I did find a few, though.

Mentor Texts: Early Elementary

Text#1
Excerpt from THE LUNCH ROOM
by Nik­ki Grimes

My lunch tray’s like a boul­der
I’ve lugged around for miles,
past strangers, left and right,
whose unfa­mil­iar smiles
are meant for some­one else
’cause I’m the new kid here.
“You’ll do fine,” Mom said ear­li­er.
“Of that I have no fear.”          

— from Thanks a Mil­lion © 2006 by Nik­ki Grimes

Text #2
PIGEON
by Nik­ki Grimes

Ouch! This word pecks at my pock­et
like some wild thing, anx­ious to go free.

PIGEON.

Its speck­led sis­ter paces along
the win­dowsill, star­ing in at me.

— from A Pock­et­ful of Poems © 2001 by Nik­ki Grimes

Text #3
IT
by Nik­ki Grimes

Its eyes are oceans.
It smells like milk,
slides like an eel,
feels like silk.
It grabs Chris’s fin­ger,
before it turns to me.
Then Mami says, “Hijos,
meet your sis­ter, Melodye.”

— from Oh, Broth­er! © Nik­ki Grimes

Poetic Device: Simile

  1. Give stu­dents the def­i­n­i­tion of Sim­i­le.
  2. Share and dis­cuss men­tor texts with the stu­dents.
  3. Using Men­tor Text #3, have each stu­dent work on three new sim­i­les to describe a new­born baby. Have then begin by writ­ing down, and then answer­ing three ques­tions:
  • What does it smell like?
  • What does it move like?
  • What does it feel like?

Remind them to be spe­cif­ic as they com­pare two very dif­fer­ent things.

Once they have their answers, help them work to form new sim­i­les.

  1. Invite sev­er­al stu­dents to read their final sim­i­les aloud.
  2. Divide the class into small groups. Offer them a new sub­ject to cre­ate a sim­ple sim­i­le about.

Key­words: Sim­i­le, Free Verse, Metaphor

Exten­sion Activ­i­ty: Have stu­dents illus­trate a sim­i­le of their choos­ing in a lit­er­al way. What would it look like if some­one’s dog was as big as a school bus? What would it look like if some­one’s eyes twin­kled like stars?

Mentor Texts: Middle Grade

At this stage, we enter the realm of com­plex sim­i­les. These add anoth­er lay­er of detailed descrip­tion, paint­ing more of a pic­ture of the item being com­pared.

Text#1
Excerpt from PERSISTENT
by Nik­ki Grimes

Teacher taps his top lip
like a door the right words
are hid­ing behind.

— from Words With Wings © 2013 by Nik­ki Grimes

Text #2
WILLOW
by Nik­ki Grimes

There’s this one kid, David,
plants him­self in
the back of the room,
hair hang­ing over his desk
like a wil­low.
He talks even
less than me.
I won­der why.

— from Words With Wings © 2013 by Nik­ki Grimes

Poetic Device: Simile

  1. Share and dis­cuss men­tor texts with class.
  2. What makes these sim­i­les com­plex, rather than sim­ple? What detail has been added to the basic sim­i­le?
  3. Ask some­one to give the def­i­n­i­tion of Sim­i­le and Com­plex Sim­i­le. Dis­cuss the dif­fer­ences.
  4. Have stu­dents rewrite the sim­i­les in the men­tor texts by ask­ing and answer­ing the ques­tions:
  • How might the teacher tap his top lip? What might that be like? What might that look like? What might that sound like?
  • How might David’s hair hang over a desk? What might that look like? What could you com­pare it to?
  1. Have sev­er­al stu­dents read their new sim­i­les aloud.
  2. Give stu­dents 3 sub­jects to turn into sim­i­les. (Pre­pare these in advance.)

Poetic Device: Complex Simile

  1. Share

Key­words: Sim­i­le, Com­plex Sim­i­le, Free Verse

Exten­sion Activ­i­ty: Have stu­dents pick two ran­dom words from a hat, box, or bag and con­nect them with a sim­i­le. E.g. sun­glass­es + snake = “His sun­glass­es were as dark as a black mam­ba snake”, or “His sun­glass­es slow­ly slid down his nose like a slith­er­ing snake,” or “His angu­lar sun­glass­es made him look like a snake hyp­no­tiz­ing is prey.” Remind stu­dents that com­par­isons can be sim­ple or com­plex, and can involve phys­i­cal traits, move­ment, and oth­er verbs, emo­tions evoked by the words, and so on.

Mentor Texts: Young Adult

Text#1
Excerpt from BRUISED LOVE
by Nik­ki Grimes

She tip­toed in, late
and limp­ing, her cheek
raw as red-brown meat …

“I bruise eas­i­ly“
is one of the lies
she sprin­kles like sug­ar.”

— from Bronx Mas­quer­ade © 2002 by Nik­ki Grimes

Text #2
Excerpt from BROWN HANDS
by Nik­ki Grimes

you fill your eyes with me
like a mir­ror
I see myself in.
… Our twin hearts beat
like con­gas, the rhythm
churn­ing our blood
to sal­sa.

— from Bronx Mas­quer­ade © 2002 by Nik­ki Grimes

Text #3
Excerpt from MIRROR MIRROR
by Nik­ki Grimes

I peer into your soul
and dive deep,
splash-land­ing
in a pool of pain
as salty and famil­iar
as the tears on my cheek.

— from Bronx Mas­quer­ade © 2002 by Nik­ki Grimes

Poetic Device: Simile

  1. Share and dis­cuss the men­tor texts with stu­dents. Break down the mean­ing of each sim­i­le. Ask if they’ve ever felt the kind of pain as the char­ac­ter in the poem. “If you were in a world of pain, what would you com­pare your feel­ings to? How might you describe that feel­ing dif­fer­ent­ly, in the form of a sim­i­le?”
  2. Dis­cuss what makes these sim­i­les com­plex.
  3. Have stu­dents do a free-write in their jour­nal about some­thing dif­fi­cult or uncom­fort­able in their lives, or in the world.
  4. Have them choose 5 or 6 six lines to turn into a poem, using sim­i­les to express their emo­tions about their cho­sen top­ic.
  5. If time allows, invite sev­er­al stu­dents to share their poems.

Key­words: Com­plex Sim­i­le, Metaphor, Express­ing Emo­tion

Exten­sion Activ­i­ty: Chal­lenge stu­dents to find com­plex sim­i­les in a vari­ety of media — books, song lyrics, oth­er poems, etc. Have them bring in a favorite exam­ple and explain (through writ­ing or oral­ly) why it’s the per­fect way to express an image, idea, or feel­ing.

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