“His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry;
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard on his chin was as white as the snow.”
“The smoke, it encircled his head like a wreath.”
“That shook, when he laughed, like a bowl full of jelly.”
Encourage the children to find other similes themselves—the characteristic like and as will make the task easy.
In The First Snowfall (Volume II, page 403) are a number of metaphors which may be easily explained to children. For instance, the following will be readily understood:
“Every pine and fir and hemlock
Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm tree
Was ridged inch deep with pearl.”
“The stiff rails were softened to swan’s-down.”
Summary
We have considered the most common and expressive figures, and if one accustoms himself to the recognition of these and an explanation of their meaning as has been indicated here, he will soon recognize others of more complex type. Mere classification is valueless; our purpose is to learn to see and to feel more clearly and more deeply by means of our intelligent grasp upon these figurative expressions.
Thought, then, is mastered by attention to the details we have discussed, and until we habitually notice these things our reading is apt to be slipshod and profitless. It will help us to retain these facts in mind if we put them into a systematic outline.