Epic Simile: The epic simile is a figurative device first popularized by Homer in his epics. It is a comparison that may be as long as a dozen lines. An epic simile is used typically in epic poetry to intensify the heroic stature of the subject and to serve as decoration. For example, a hero may act 'like a lion'; but then this simple comparison may be developed until we read, for instance, the hero rushes to meet his enemy like a lion, a ravaging lion, whom men are resolved to kill, the whole village uniting: at first he goes on, heedless, but when some fighting man wounds him with a spear, he gathers himself open-mouthed; there is foam about his teeth, his fighting spirit groans in his heart, and with his tail he lashes his flanks on either side, then comes straight on with glaring eyes, … even so was the hero driven on by his anger and his brave spirit to confront he great-hearted enemy. Such a comparison becomes an end in itself, a striking piece of ornament and variety, and often it is unfolded in such a way that the simile differs from what it describes. No doubt, there will be no exact correspondence between the tenor (the issue) and the vehicle (the object compared with); the reader should logically interpret by understanding what features can be compared.
Edmund Spenser’s epic simile comparing two armies with the river and sea is also striking as an example. First, the poet simply compares the British army with the river and their enemies with the ocean. The river Shanon and the ocean are seen in a hand-to-hand combat with each other. Then the poet goes on to say that the ocean was threatening the river by trying to block it from its natural territory: this new idea is a political metaphor. Further elaborating the idea, the poet says that the ocean was using the water borrowed from the river and spending it against the master, the river: these metaphors are financial. After eight lines of elaborate comparison, the poet says that the river won over the tides of the ocean with doubled gain (water). Such elaborate similes add emphasis, and can direct the emotional response of the audience by presenting objects and scenes in a certain way. But they also allow the poet to include aspects of the world which otherwise could not have been got in; wild nature, peaceful agriculture, the various trades and skills.

Allegory: Allegory is a parallel story. If a single word or expression has an abstract and general meaning, it is called a symbol; but if the whole ‘story’ of a drama, story or poem has a symbolic meaning throughout, it is called an allegory. Read More...

Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds. The repeated consonants normally occur at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables. Read More...

Allusion: An allusion in a literary text is a reference to a personal place or event or to another literary work or passage. It does not have clear identification, that is, it does not tell directly what it stands for. Read More...

Animation: Animation is giving life to non-living objects. If a poet treats a lifeless concrete thing as having life, awareness, will-power, thought, emotion, etc, that is called animation. Read More...

Ballad:originally a kind of folk song; also sung with music; now recorded in writing, and also regarded as literature/ poetry. Read More...

Blank verse: Blank verse refers to the poetic lines that use iambic pentameter without rhyming. Read More...

Conceit: The conceit is a striking metaphor. It is so original and unconventional that it not only strikes the reader into attention, but sometimes shocks them, being even objectionable or absurd at first. Read More...

Elegy: The elegy was originally the form of poetry on the subject of sadness, especially ‘complaints about love’. Read More...

Epic: One the oldest of the poetic forms, the epic is a long narrative poem, majestic both in theme and style, dealing with legendary or historical events of national or universal significance, involving action of broad sweep and grandeur. Read More...

Free verse: Free verse means poetry without rhyme-scheme and any standard or fixed rhythm. Read More...

Heroic couplet: Heroic couplet is a pair of lines with iambic pentameter; the lines must also rhyme together. Read More...

Iambic pentameter: Iambic pentameter means ‘five iambic feet in a line’. ‘Iambic’ means a unit of rhythm with two syllables where the first is not stressed (U) and the second is stressed (S). Read More...

Image: An image is considered to be a picture created in the mind by words. Generally images are divided as visual images and abstract images. Read More...

Imagery: Imagery is the general term for the use of ‘images’ in poetry. The use of all kinds of concrete, metaphoric and more abstract is called imagery. Read More...

Irony: Irony is an indirect way of criticizing things, and it can be done in several ways. The word ‘Irony’ comes from its Greek root ‘Eiron’, a dramatic character who spoke in ‘understatement’, pretending to be less intelligent. Read More...