Similes in Poetry

1
Similes in Poetry
2

• Find the similes in the following poems.

3
The Black Snake

• By Mary Oliver

4

• When the black snake
• flashed onto the morning road,
• and the truck could not swerve ---
• death, that is how it happens.
• Now he lies looped and useless
• as an old bicycle tire.
• I stop the car
• and carry him into the bushes.
• He is as cool and gleaming
• as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
• as a dead brother.
• I leave him under the leaves.

5

• When the black snake
• flashed onto the morning road,
• and the truck could not swerve ---
• death, that is how it happens.
• Now he lies looped and useless
• as an old bicycle tire.
• I stop the car
• and carry him into the bushes.
• He is as cool and gleaming
• as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
• as a dead brother.
• I leave him under the leaves.

6

• When the black snake
• flashed onto the morning road,
• and the truck could not swerve ---
• death, that is how it happens.
• Now he lies looped and useless
• as an old bicycle tire.
• I stop the car
• and carry him into the bushes.
• He is as cool and gleaming
• as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
• as a dead brother.
• I leave him under the leaves.

7

• When the black snake
• flashed onto the morning road,
• and the truck could not swerve ---
• death, that is how it happens.
• Now he lies looped and useless
• as an old bicycle tire.
• I stop the car
• and carry him into the bushes.
• He is as cool and gleaming
• as a braided whip, he is as beautiful and quiet
• as a dead brother.
• I leave him under the leaves.

8
The Meadow Mouse

• By Theodore Roethke

9

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

10

• Now hes eaten his three kinds of cheese and
  drunk from his bottle-cap watering-trough---
• So much he just lies in one corner,
• His tail curled under him, his belly big
• As his head his bat-like ears
• Twitching, tilting toward the least sound.
• Do I imagine he no longer trembles
• When I come close to him?
• He seems no longer to tremble.

11

• But this morning the shoe-box house on the back
  porch is empty.
• Where has he gone, my meadow mouse,
• My thumb of a child that nuzzled in my palm?---
• To run under the hawks wing,
• Under the eye of the great owl watching from the
  elm-tree,
• To live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the
  tom-cat.
• I think of the nestling fallen into the deep
  grass,
• The turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the
  highway,
• The paralytic stunned in the tub, and the water
  rising, ---
• All things innocent, hapless, forsaken.

12

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

13

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

14

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

15

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

16

• In a shoe box stuffed in an old nylon stocking
• Sleeps the baby mouse I found in the meadow,
• Where he trembled and shook beneath a stick
• Till I caught him up by the tail and brought him
  in,
• Cradled in my hand,
• A little quaker, the whole body of him trembling,
• His absurd whiskers sticking out like a
  cartoon-mouse,
• His feet like small leaves,
• Little lizard-feet,
• Whitish and spread wide when he tried to struggle
  away,
• Wriggling like a minuscule puppy.

17

• Now hes eaten his three kinds of cheese and
  drunk from his bottle-cap watering-trough---
• So much he just lies in one corner,
• His tail curled under him, his belly big
• As his head his bat-like ears
• Twitching, tilting toward the least sound.
• Do I imagine he no longer trembles
• When I come close to him?
• He seems no longer to tremble.

18

• Now hes eaten his three kinds of cheese and
  drunk from his bottle-cap watering-trough---
• So much he just lies in one corner,
• His tail curled under him, his belly big
• As his head his bat-like ears
• Twitching, tilting toward the least sound.
• Do I imagine he no longer trembles
• When I come close to him?
• He seems no longer to tremble.

19

• Now hes eaten his three kinds of cheese and
  drunk from his bottle-cap watering-trough---
• So much he just lies in one corner,
• His tail curled under him, his belly big
• As his head his bat-like ears
• Twitching, tilting toward the least sound.
• Do I imagine he no longer trembles
• When I come close to him?
• He seems no longer to tremble.

20

• But this morning the shoe-box house on the back
  porch is empty.
• Where has he gone, my meadow mouse,
• My thumb of a child that nuzzled in my palm?---
• To run under the hawks wing,
• Under the eye of the great owl watching from the
  elm-tree,
• To live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the
  tom-cat.
• I think of the nestling fallen into the deep
  grass,
• The turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the
  highway,
• The paralytic stunned in the tub, and the water
  rising, ---
• All things innocent, hapless, forsaken.

21

• But this morning the shoe-box house on the back
  porch is empty.
• Where has he gone, my meadow mouse,
• My thumb of a child that nuzzled in my palm?---
• To run under the hawks wing,
• Under the eye of the great owl watching from the
  elm-tree,
• To live by courtesy of the shrike, the snake, the
  tom-cat.
• I think of the nestling fallen into the deep
  grass,
• The turtle gasping in the dusty rubble of the
  highway,
• The paralytic stunned in the tub, and the water
  rising, ---
• All things innocent, hapless, forsaken.

22
miss rosie

• By Lucille Clifton

23

• when I watch you
• wrapped up like garbage
• sitting, surrounded by the smell
• of too old potato peels
• or
• when I watch you
• in your old mans shoes
• with the little toe cut out
• sitting, waiting for your mind
• like next weeks groceries
• I say
• when I watch you
• you wet brown bag of a woman
• who used to be the best looking gal in georgia
• used to be called the Georgia Rose
• I stand up
• through your destruction
• I stand up ?

24

• when I watch you
• wrapped up like garbage
• sitting, surrounded by the smell
• of too old potato peels
• or
• when I watch you
• in your old mans shoes
• with the little toe cut out
• sitting, waiting for your mind
• like next weeks groceries
• I say
• when I watch you
• you wet brown bag of a woman
• who used to be the best looking gal in georgia
• used to be called the Georgia Rose
• I stand up
• through your destruction
• I stand up ?

25

• when I watch you
• wrapped up like garbage
• sitting, surrounded by the smell
• of too old potato peels
• or
• when I watch you
• in your old mans shoes
• with the little toe cut out
• sitting, waiting for your mind
• like next weeks groceries
• I say
• when I watch you
• you wet brown bag of a woman
• who used to be the best looking gal in georgia
• used to be called the Georgia Rose
• I stand up
• through your destruction
• I stand up ?

26

• when I watch you
• wrapped up like garbage
• sitting, surrounded by the smell
• of too old potato peels
• or
• when I watch you
• in your old mans shoes
• with the little toe cut out
• sitting, waiting for your mind
• like next weeks groceries
• I say
• when I watch you
• you wet brown bag of a woman
• who used to be the best looking gal in georgia
• used to be called the Georgia Rose
• I stand up
• through your destruction
• I stand up ?

27
Answer the following questions

• What three similes does Mary Oliver use in her
  poem, The Black Snake?
• Rewrite one of the similes as a metaphor.
• How does Roethke deviate from the typical usage
  of a simile in the second stanza?
• Give an example of a metaphor in Roethke s poem.
• Clifton also uses similes and metaphors in her
  poem, miss rosie. What image of Miss Rosie do
  they convey?

28
Answer the following questions
Honors

1. What three similes does Mary Oliver use in her
   poem, The Black Snake? Explain each.
2. Rewrite each of the similes as metaphors.
3. How does Roethke deviate from the typical usage
   of a simile in the second stanza?
4. Give an example of a metaphor in Roethke s poem.
5. Clifton also uses similes and metaphors in her
   poem, miss rosie. Identify each simile and
   metaphor and explain what they mean.
6. What image of Miss Rosie do they convey?

29
Write a Simile Poem

• Write a poem about an animal or a person.
• It must be at least three stanzas long.
• Each stanza must include at least four lines
  and one simile.

30
Write a Simile Poem
Honors

• Write a poem about a memory of an animal or
  person.
• It must be at least three stanzas long.
• Each stanza must include at least four lines
  and one simile.
• Also, include at least one metaphor in the poem.