I’m about to commit the gravest of blasphemies against ELA doctrine, so I might as well get it out of the way up front.

It’s silly that we have different names for “similes” and “metaphors.” They’re the SAME THING. The distinction is purely technical and largely irrelevant.

Alliteration is alliteration whether it occurs in multiple sentences or a single pair of words. The name doesn’t change based on whether the repeated consonant is hard or soft, capitalized or lowercase.

Onomatopoeia is onomatopoeia whether the sounds being emulated are emitted from living creatures or inanimate matter – loud or soft, comforting or frightening.

Personification is personification. Imagery is imagery. Foreshadowing is foreshadowing. Themes are themes.

But metaphors are only metaphors if they don’t use “like” or “as.” If either of those words appears, suddenly they’re similes. As a result, we spend so much time trying to help students distinguish between the two that we lose sight of why these devices exist in the first place.

A metaphor compares two things which aren’t otherwise alike in order to emphasize one or more characteristics of the primary character or situation being described.

A simile, on the other hand, compares two things which aren’t otherwise alike in order to emphasize one or more characteristics of the primary character or situation being described… and uses “like” or “as” to do so, so it’s a tad less intense.

“You’re an angel” is a metaphor.

“You’re like an angel” is a simile.

These aren’t exactly the same, but they’re close enough that they shouldn’t require multiple worksheets to tell them apart. And just to complicate things, not every description using “like” or “as” is a simile.

“I’m going to the Halloween party dressed like an angel” is neither a simile nor a metaphor – it’s just a description. But we get kids so focused on that “like” and “as” nonsense that they feel betrayed when statements like this don’t qualify.

That’s a shame, because a decent metaphor (or simile) can bring connection, complexity, or any number of other interesting characteristics to a piece of literature, a simple poem, a pop song, or even a persuasive essay – often more efficiently and effectively than any other literary device. There are endless iterations of this across multiple genres, but for now I’m going to stick with a few easily digestible examples from popular music – the kind you’d use when first teaching these devices to kids.

Most musical examples are fairly straightforward…

From “I Am A Rock” by Simon and Garfunkel:

I’ve built walls – a fortress deep and mighty that none may penetrate

I have no need of friendship – friendship causes pain – it’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain

I am a rock – I am an island

From “Life Is A Highway” by Rascal Flatts:

Life’s like a road that you travel on – when there’s one day here and the next day gone

Sometimes you bend – sometimes you stand – sometimes you turn your back to the wind…

Life is a highway – I wanna ride it all night long

If you’re goin’ my way, well – I wanna drive it all night long

From “Hungry Like The Wolf” by Duran Duran:

I’m on the hunt, I’m after you

Mouth is alive, with juices like wine and I’m hungry like the wolf

From “We Got The Beat” by Talib Kweli:

Coming from the deep black like the Loch Ness, now bring apocalypse like the Heart of Darkness…

You get the idea. Others, though, are developed a bit more thoroughly, as in this excerpt from “Buggin’” by the Flaming Lips:

All those bugs buzzing around…

Well they fly in the air and you comb your hair

And the summertime will make you itch the mosquito bites

The buzz of love is busy buggin’ you

Well they fly in the air as you comb your hair

And they’re splattered up and down your windshield – the headlights

Well, they bite – yeah, they bite – but you can’t see them there

But they bite – yeah, they bite – but you can’t tell they’re there

Does love buzz? Because that’s what it does…

We have multiple things going on here. There’s all that onomatopoeia of the buzzing and splattering and the alliteration of the bugs biting. But there’s also an underlying metaphor – love is like bugs in the summer. It’s annoying and messy, but it’s everywhere and chances are, you can’t escape it. Love is probably the most written about subject in all of human history, but this quirky metaphor finds something new to say about it. Exactly what that is may be difficult to explain – but that’s why the writer uses the metaphor in the first place.

In “Brick” by the Ben Folds Five, we have the recurring metaphor referenced in the title:

Now that I have found someone, I’m feeling more alone than I ever have before

She’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly – off the coast and I’m headed nowhere

She’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly…

A brick isn’t a bag of concrete, but it’s enough that over time the pull becomes unbearable – especially when you can’t quite reach dry land and aren’t even sure what direction you’re going. The details described in the rest of the song are quite specific, but the experience of being pulled down by a relationship you don’t feel free to escape is universal – hence the power of the metaphor.

Things don’t always have to be so profound, of course. In “If I Were A Bell” from the musical “Guys and Dolls,” love interest Sarah Brown (a “good girl” missionary being swept off her feet by a “bad boy” gambler) uses a series of metaphors to express her happiness with just enough sexual innuendo to provide plausible deniability should anyone question her too closely:

Ask me how do I feel – ask me now that we’re cozy and clinging

Well, sir, all I can say is if I were a bell, I’d be ringing

From the moment we kissed tonight, that’s the way I’ve just gotta behave

Boy, if I were a lamp, I’d light – or if I were a banner, I’d wave

Ask me how do I feel, little me with my quiet upbringing

Well, sir, all I can say is if I were a gate, I’d be swinging

And if I were a watch, I’d start popping my springs

Or if I were a bell, I’d go ding dong ding dong ding…

Ask me how do I feel – ask me now that we’re fondly caressing

Well, if I were a salad, I know I’d be splashing my dressing

Or if I were a season, I’d surely be spring

Or if I were a gate, I would swing – have a fling – almost any old thing

Or if I were a bell, I’d go ding dong ding dong ding dong ding dong ding!

None of these are overly specific – a bell ringing, a gate swinging, a salad “splashing its dressing,” etc. Used this way, the metaphors suggest an emotional state through their cumulative effect. (They don’t all even make sense individually.) The character is experiencing something new and unexpected. She lacks the words to explain it – so… metaphors galore.

Admiral Twin does something similar in “Better Than Nothing At All,” although the cumulative effect of their metaphorical onslaught has a very different tone:

I’m a bitter pill on your tongue, but I tell you – I’m better than nothing at all

I go down as smooth as a nail or a memory drowning in alcohol…

I’m the ghost in your closet when you turn the lights out – I’m rattling ’round through your bones

I know all your secret designs and amusements – I’m listening on the phone…

I’m the rock at the bottom of where you are falling, and when we kiss you’ll be there

I’m the thorn in your side when you’re trying to be cool (but nobody really cares)

You’re afraid of the outside – you’re afraid of the outside creeping in

You don’t really want me, but you’d better believe

Oh, I’m better than nothing at all – oh, I’m better than nothing at all

A few of these could also be classified as “idioms,” but their purpose is the same. Something very difficult to accurately describe in literal language – in this case, a dysfunctional relationship of some sort – can be captured quite powerfully with the right metaphors.

Some writers use metaphors so subtly that the story (or poem, or song) works just fine without our conscious awareness that anything deeper is going on. I love this example from “Little Black Dress” by Sara Bareilles:

I tried to be everything you’d ever want and sometimes I even stood on my heart and stomped

Now I’m finally alone and dressed for the show – but going nowhere – they don’t need to see me crying

I’ll get my little black dress on, and if I put on my favorite song – I’m gonna dance until you’re all gone…

Now I’m fighting to find the ground again, to steady my feet

Get up off my knees and just remember that I am more than just somebody’s puppet

I can find the cord and then I’ll cut it

I stand a pretty good chance to dust myself off and dance

I’ll get my little black dress on, and if I put on my favorite song – I’m gonna dance until you’re all gone…

And if I tell myself that nothing’s wrong, this doesn’t have to be a sad song – now with my little black dress on

It’s time to connect the dots and draw a different picture up and paint it with the colors of everything I ever was

Return to the scene of the crime, the day I let the music die, and rewrite the final lines cause this time I –

I’ll get my little black dress on, and if I put on my favorite song – I’m gonna dance until you’re all gone…

And if I tell myself that nothing’s wrong, this doesn’t have to be a sad song

Not with my little black dress on

The song is a fairly straightforward celebration of self-empowerment after a bad breakup, and most students will catch the “puppet” metaphor easily enough.

It’s noteworthy, however, that it’s a little black dress – not red (suggesting danger or sexuality) or green (implying rebirth or new growth) or whatever. Black is the color one wears to a funeral. In this case, it’s not the death of an individual, but of a relationship. Combined with the elusive reference to “the day I let the music die” and the recurring insistence that “this doesn’t have to be a sad song,” it’s safe to say the choice was intentional.

You know how these artistic types are, after all.

But let’s just say it’s NOT intentional – that a “little black dress” is simply a standard, all-purpose go-to for many women. Does that invalidate the “funeral” metaphor I just spent so much time on? No, not at all. Metaphors and similes don’t rely on the intent of the author anymore than a pregnancy must be planned in order to produce a baby. Sometimes they just… happen.

The examples above are only a few very basic examples of some of the different ways metaphors and similes can be used; the possibilities are pretty much endless. Many songs, poems, and stories utilize these literary devices in “one-and-done” fashion to make a single point, while others weave thematic tapestries you could spend weeks unraveling. There are also some metaphors so common in stories, poems, and songs, that they’ll require their own separate post – windows, doors, weather, light, dark, seasons, water, birth, cars and driving (or crashing), waking up, falling asleep, etc. We’ll try to tackle a few of these next time.