AP English Literature and Composition

## Learning Outcomes

- Define **simile** accurately and distinguish it from metaphor
- Explain what a simile does in a poem, not just how to spot it
- Analyse how similes shape imagery, tone, speaker perspective, and theme
- Use a repeatable method for writing commentary on similes in AP poetry responses
- Avoid common errors such as device-spotting, vague tone labels, and treating the speaker as the poet
- Build stronger thesis-and-commentary paragraphs for poetry analysis essays

## AP English Literature and Composition Syllabus

For the AP English Literature and Composition, you are expected to understand simile function in poetry, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that a **simile** is a comparison between unlike things using _like_ or _as_
- Identify what two things are being compared and what qualities are transferred from one to the other
- Explain the **function of comparison** in context rather than merely labeling the device
- Understand how similes can clarify imagery, make abstract feelings concrete, and reveal the speaker’s attitude
- Explain how similes contribute to tone, characterization of the speaker, and larger meaning
- Distinguish **speaker** from poet when discussing the effect of a simile
- Recognise the difference between **theme** and subject when linking a simile to a poem’s meaning
- Compare simile and metaphor when the explicitness of the comparison affects interpretation

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. What makes a comparison a simile rather than a metaphor?
2. Why is it not enough on the AP exam to say, “This line uses a simile”?
3. How can a simile reveal the speaker’s attitude toward a subject?
4. What is the difference between saying a simile “creates imagery” and actually analysing its function?
5. How can the same simile shape both tone and theme?

## Introduction

Similes appear constantly in poetry, but AP Literature does not reward you for merely spotting _like_ or _as_. The real task is to explain **why that comparison matters**. A strong reader does not stop at identification. A strong reader asks what the comparison reveals, what kind of image it creates, why that specific image was chosen, and how it contributes to the poem’s larger meaning.

This matters in both multiple-choice and free-response work. A poetry question may ask about the effect of a figure of speech, the speaker’s attitude, or the meaning of a phrase in context. In each case, simile analysis depends on close reading and commentary, not feature-spotting.

> **Key Term: simile**
> A comparison between unlike things using _like_ or _as_.

### What a simile does in a poem

A simile is useful because it makes the act of comparison visible. Rather than declaring that one thing _is_ another, the poem tells you that one thing is _like_ another. That explicitness often matters. It can make the speaker sound observant, cautious, reflective, playful, or uncertain. In other words, the form of the comparison affects interpretation.

> **Key Term: figurative language**
> Language that departs from literal meaning in order to create effect, insight, or added meaning.

A simile can perform several jobs at once:

- sharpen a sensory image
- make an abstract feeling concrete
- reveal how the speaker sees the world
- qualify or complicate tone
- connect an image to a broader theme

For example, if a speaker describes evening “like a patient etherized upon a table,” the point is not simply that the line is vivid. The simile turns a familiar sunset into something inert, clinical, and disturbing. It changes the emotional atmosphere. It also reveals the speaker’s state of mind: detached, anxious, perhaps spiritually numb. The simile does not decorate the poem. It interprets experience.

Students often write, “The simile creates imagery.” That is only a starting point. Almost every simile creates imagery. The better question is: **what kind of imagery, and to what end?** Does the image make something beautiful seem grotesque? Does it slow the pace and force reflection? Does it turn a private feeling into a physical scene?

> **Test Tip:** If your commentary could fit after any simile in any poem, it is too vague. Replace “creates imagery” with a precise claim about what the image suggests and why that matters in context.

Similes are sometimes less fertile than metaphors because they keep the two things separate. But that separation can itself be meaningful. A speaker who says one thing is _like_ another may sound less certain, less absolute, or more analytical than a speaker who makes a direct metaphor. That difference is often worth mentioning when the poem’s tone depends on hesitation or distance.

> **Key Term: metaphor**
> A direct or implied comparison between unlike things without using _like_ or _as_.

A quick contrast helps:

- **Simile:** explicit comparison; often feels observational or measured
- **Metaphor:** fused comparison; often feels stronger or more declarative

This is a tendency, not a fixed law. Still, in AP analysis, it can help explain why a poet chose one form over the other.

### How to analyse simile: a repeatable AP method

The safest method is a four-part sequence:

1. identify the two things being compared
2. unpack the literal and connotative qualities of the second thing
3. explain what those qualities suggest about the first thing in context
4. connect that effect to tone, speaker perspective, or theme
   > **Key Term: connotation**
   > The implied associations and emotional shading a word or image carries beyond its direct definition.

Suppose a poem says a memory clings “like smoke in curtains.”

A weak comment would be:

- This is a simile comparing memory to smoke.

A stronger comment would be:

- By comparing memory to smoke in curtains, the speaker suggests that the past lingers invisibly yet persistently. Smoke stains fabric and is hard to remove, so the simile gives memory a suffocating and lasting quality. This deepens the poem’s uneasy tone and suggests that the past cannot simply be shut out.

Notice the movement:

- comparison
- transferred qualities
- effect
- larger meaning

That is the structure AP readers reward.

> **Key Term: tone**
> The speaker’s attitude toward the subject, audience, or self.

Tone words should be precise. Instead of “sad,” try _elegiac_, _bitter_, _wistful_, _meditative_, _wry_, or _anxious_ when the evidence supports them. Similes often carry tone because the compared image has emotional weight built into it. A simile involving ash, rust, cages, blades, or graves will usually shape tone differently from one involving birdsong, silk, dawn, or fruit.

Here is a model commentary pattern:

- The simile compares **X** to **Y**
- This suggests **specific qualities**
- Those qualities shape the speaker’s tone as **\_\_\_**
- The comparison also reinforces the poem’s idea that **\_\_\_**

That pattern is simple, but it works because it keeps you from stopping at identification.

> **Test Tip:** In a poetry essay, write about the simile only if you can finish the sentence “This comparison matters because…”. If you cannot, choose another piece of evidence.

### Major functions students should notice

Not all similes do the same work. Knowing the main functions helps you move beyond summary.

#### Clarifying imagery

Some similes help readers picture something quickly and concretely. When Emily Dickinson compares books to vehicles in “There Is No Frigate Like a Book,” the comparison gives shape to an abstract claim about reading. The point is not just travel. The elevated diction of “frigate,” “coursers,” and “chariot” suggests adventure, grandeur, and transport of the spirit. The comparison lifts reading above a basic pastime.

#### Making abstraction physical

Poets often use similes when emotions are hard to describe directly. Fear, love, grief, shame, or desire may be rendered through a physical analogue. That matters because poetry often works by turning inward states outward. A simile lets the reader feel an idea through texture, motion, sound, or pressure.

If a speaker’s grief is “like winter branches,” the comparison may suggest barrenness, exposure, stiffness, or endurance. Which of those meanings dominates depends on context. Good analysis chooses the qualities that the poem’s diction and tone support.

#### Revealing speaker perspective

A simile always tells you something about the speaker because it shows what kind of comparisons occur naturally to that mind. A religious speaker may reach for scriptural or sacred images. A rural speaker may compare things to weather, animals, fields, or tools. A cynical speaker may choose harsh, mechanical, or decaying images.

> **Key Term: speaker**
> The voice in the poem; not automatically the poet.

This is where many students lose marks. They say, “The poet feels…” when the safer and more accurate phrasing is, “The speaker suggests…” or “The comparison reveals the speaker’s view…” That matters because a poem may adopt a persona, dramatic voice, or ironic stance.

#### Shaping theme

A simile can also direct the poem’s broader insight. Theme is not a topic word like “love” or “death.” It is an arguable claim about experience.

> **Key Term: theme**
> The central idea or insight a poem develops; not just a one-word subject.

So instead of saying, “The simile develops the theme of love,” say something like:

- The simile supports the poem’s suggestion that love is both sustaining and dangerous.
- The simile reinforces the idea that memory preserves what time also distorts.

That kind of sentence gives the poem an interpretable meaning rather than a label.

### Worked analysis examples and common mistakes

Because AP Literature rewards commentary, it helps to see what stronger reasoning looks like.

Consider Shakespeare’s sonnet beginning “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.” The similes and anti-similes matter because they reject stale praise. The speaker refuses conventional comparisons between a woman and idealized natural beauty. That choice creates a witty, corrective tone. More importantly, it turns the poem into an argument about truthful love. The concluding couplet matters because it shows that rejecting false comparison does not weaken love; it makes love more credible.

A weak reading says:

- Shakespeare uses similes to describe his mistress.

A stronger reading says:

- By refusing exaggerated comparisons such as eyes like the sun, the speaker mocks formulaic love poetry and creates a wry tone. The rejected similes expose how empty conventional praise can be, which helps the poem argue that honest affection is more valuable than false idealization.

Now consider a strange simile such as a natural scene described in medical terms. Students often panic and paraphrase. Instead, ask: what emotional pressure does that image create? If a natural scene is compared to illness, surgery, or paralysis, the speaker may be unable to experience beauty innocently. The simile may register alienation, dread, or spiritual fatigue.

Common mistakes include:

- identifying _like_ or _as_ when no real comparison is being made
- explaining only one side of the comparison
- paraphrasing the line without discussing effect
- using vague tone words
- treating subject as theme
- assuming the speaker and poet are identical

A useful check is this: have you written about both items in the comparison? If you only discuss the thing being described and ignore the vehicle of comparison, your analysis is incomplete.

For example, with “like smoke in curtains,” you must discuss **smoke** and **curtains**, not just memory. Smoke lingers, stains, spreads, and irritates; curtains absorb it and hold it. Those associations create the meaning.

Another common error is generic commentary:

- This makes the poem more interesting.
- This helps readers visualize.
- This creates emotion.

Those comments are too broad. Replace them with exact effects:

- This makes grief seem invasive rather than temporary.
- This turns admiration into discomfort.
- This suggests that the speaker experiences nature through fear instead of wonder.

### Writing a strong AP paragraph on simile

A good AP paragraph needs a defensible claim, specific evidence, and commentary that explains the relationship between them. If simile is your focus, do not organize the paragraph as “Here is a simile. Here is another simile.” Organize it around an idea.

For example:

- Claim: The speaker’s similes turn ordinary scenes into threatening ones, revealing a mind that cannot separate observation from anxiety.
- Evidence: quote or paraphrase the comparison
- Commentary: unpack the associations
- Link: connect to tone and meaning

Model paragraph:

The speaker’s similes make the external world feel unstable, which reveals how deeply anxiety shapes perception. When the evening is compared to a body rendered helpless, the image strips the natural world of vitality and replaces beauty with paralysis. Because twilight is usually associated with calm or romance, the jarring comparison creates a disturbed, clinical tone instead. The simile therefore does more than describe the sky; it shows that the speaker cannot experience the world apart from his own unease. In this way, the poem suggests that perception is filtered through emotional condition.

That is AP-ready because it offers line of reasoning, not just naming.

To earn stronger commentary scores, keep your verbs analytical: _suggests, reveals, sharpens, complicates, characterizes, intensifies, qualifies_. Those verbs force you to explain function.

You can also build sophistication by considering tension. A simile may do two things at once. It may beautify and disturb. It may clarify and complicate. It may reveal admiration tinged with envy, or tenderness mixed with fear. Complex poetry often works through that double movement.

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- A simile is an explicit comparison using _like_ or _as_
- On the AP exam, identifying a simile is only the first step
- Strong analysis explains the function of the comparison in context
- A useful method is comparison -> qualities -> effect -> larger meaning
- Similes can clarify imagery and make abstract feelings concrete
- Similes often reveal the speaker’s perspective and emotional state
- The explicitness of simile can matter when compared with metaphor
- Commentary should discuss both sides of the comparison, not just one
- Tone analysis needs precise adjectives rather than vague labels
- Theme should be stated as an idea or claim, not a one-word topic
- Students should refer to the speaker, not automatically to the poet
- Strong AP paragraphs use evidence and commentary to build a line of reasoning

## Key Terms and Concepts

- simile
- figurative language
- metaphor
- connotation
- tone
- speaker
- theme


Poetry I - Simile function in poems