simile

simile sĭmˈəlē [key] [Lat.,=likeness], in rhetoric, a figure of speech in which an object is explicitly compared to another object. Robert Burns's poem “A Red Red Rose” contains two straightforward similes: My love is like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June: My love is like the melody That's sweetly played in tune. The epic, or Homeric, simile is an elaborate, formal, and sustained simile derived from those of Homer.

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