Comparison

Comparison

Comparison is a rhetorical or literary device in which a writer compares or contrasts two people, places, things or ideas. In our everyday life, we compare people, things to express ourselves vividly. Do, when we say “as lazy as a snail”. You compare two different entities to show similarity i.e.; someone’s laziness to slow pace of a snail.

Comparisons occur in literary works frequently. Writers and poets use comparison in order to line their feeling about a thing to something they compare with it. There are numerous devices in literature that compare two different things to show the similarities between them.

Ø  Metaphor

Ø  Analogy

Ø  Simile

Ø  Personification

Metaphor

       A metaphor makes a hidden comparison between two things or objects that are dissimilar to each other but have some characteristics common between them. Unlike simile, we don’t use “like” or ”as” to develop a comparison in a metaphor [ consider the following examples] the metaphor comparison is often more direct, subtle and compressed.

Ex: “My brother is the black sheep of the family”

        Is a metaphor because, he is not a sheep nor he black

Analogy

                An analogy aims at explaining an unfamiliar idea or a thing by comparing it to something that is familiar. Analyze the following examples,

These lines are form “Night clouds” written by Amy Lowell

“The white mares of the moon fush along the sky

Beating their golden hoofs upon the glass heavens”

Amy constructs an analogy between clouds and mares. She compares the movement of the white clouds in the sky at night with the movement of white mares on the ground.

Simile

                A simile is a figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a simile draws resemblance with the help of the words “like” or “as”. Therefore it is a direct comparison.

Ex: “I wander lonely as cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills…”

The poet envisions himself as a free cloud that floats alone in blue sky above valleys and the mountains. By choosing this simile, Wordsworth describes his loneliness.

Personification

          Personification is figure of speech in which a thing an idea or an animal is given human attributes. The non-human objects are portrayed in such way that we feel they have the ability to act like human beings.

Ex: “I wandered lonely as cloud [By William Words Worth]

This poem by William Words Worth contains artistic examples of personification. The 4^th line says

 “A host of golden daffodils” and 5^th line has those flowers “fluttering and dancing in the breeze”

We see from the above examples of personification that this literary devices help us relate actions of inanimate objects to our own emotions.