Samuel Taylor Coleridge called metaphor “an act of the imagination,” whereas he relegated simile to “an act of fancy.” Photo from National Portrait Gallery, 1795. Public Domain Samuel Taylor Coleridge ...

No matter if you're in school or well past your days in English class, figures of speech are used every day in our lives. From songs and television shows to conversations and advertisements, we often ...

Like similes, metaphors are a form of comparison. While similes use “as” or “like” to make comparisons, a metaphor is when you say that something is something else. She’s a night owl. The bus driver ...

"Narcissus" by Caravaggio (c. 1598). Source: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain What is an allegory? An allegory (Greek, "a speaking about something else") is a complete and cohesive narrative, for ...

Marble bust of Aristotle. Public domain. Metaphors are not user-friendly. They are hard to find and hard to use well. Unfortunately, metaphor is a mainstay of good lyric writing; indeed, of most ...

Read aloud picture books and look for simile examples and metaphor examples to learn how writers use figurative language to ...

A simile is a comparison that uses the words “like” or “as”. It describes one thing as being “like” something else or as having a shared quality or characteristic. Similes invite readers to connect ...