A simile is the explicit comparison of one thing to another, using the word "as" or "like" -- as when Robert Burns famously declares: My luve is like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: My ...

A simile describes something by comparing it to something else, using like or as. A simile is a useful way to describe something without using a long list of adjectives. It can create a vivid image in ...

If you’ve seen the film “Il Postino,” you probably remember the scene where the actor playing the part of Pablo Neruda explains the meaning of the term “metaphor” to his new friend, the postman. Pablo ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. Reading a poem by Robert Hass is like stepping into the ocean when the ...

Poems are made for the express purpose of re-figuring the world. They have no other reason for being. In them, metaphors are completely at home. In poems, metaphors subtly materialize or dynamically ...

Here is a Take 5 Mini-Lesson that makes it quick and easy to share this poem! Build on the simile in Blackaby’s first stanza (“Scientists are like explorers . . . ”), and identify some famous ...