by beatriceotto | Sep 4, 2017 | metaphors |
Two fine similes to describe inertness, of which I lean to the first as being more euphonic and original. ‘… inert as an aardvark or a giant ant-eater…’ Source: Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts: On foot to Constantinople: from the Hook of Holland to...
by beatriceotto | Sep 4, 2017 | metaphors |
Celebrity success à la 16th century – I only knew of Sidney as a poet and courtier but wasn’t aware of his star appeal on the international aristocratic circuit, appropriately conveyed as a glittering comet trail. ‘Sir Philip Sidney’s brief passage...
by beatriceotto | Aug 21, 2017 | metaphors |
I like that Leigh Fermor draws his simile from the place where the lady lives. ‘Her soliloquy flowed on as voluminously as the Danube under her window.’ Source: Patrick Leigh Fermor, A Time of Gifts (London: Penguin Books, 1977), p. 176 Photo credit:...
by beatriceotto | Aug 21, 2017 | metaphors |
A beautiful image, blueness and vagueness likened to ‘unmapped lakes’, and these, referring to eyes, being misted over with the (over) consumption of plum-brandy. And those ‘tundra-blank’ faces! ‘Swamp-and-conifer men they looked, with...
by beatriceotto | Aug 14, 2017 | metaphors |
Thoreau packs in a rich deck of similes and metaphors in this short description of the shrub oak. For the image, I looked for something that conveyed ‘clean as the atmosphere’, but I also like ‘hardy as virtue’ and the idea of being as...
by beatriceotto | Aug 14, 2017 | metaphors |
A measured, precise, unfussy speaker, this farmer. I also liked the idea of his not melting the snow where he treads, as if he is himself made of this clean, cold, moderate element. ‘The farmer spoke to me, I can swear, clean, cold, moderate as the snow. He...
by beatriceotto | Aug 14, 2017 | metaphors |
Of course, we can’t know (yet) how insensible a fungus is, but until we learn otherwise, what a memorable way to convey a loss of wonder. Apologies to all wondering fungi. And may wonder never become extinct in you, whether or not you resemble fungus....
by beatriceotto | Aug 7, 2017 | metaphors |
Never thought of caterpillars as contorted, but I like the simile. Hope you do too, and the image I used. As contorted a caterpillar as I could find and what a lurid green! ‘… contorted like caterpillars.’ 22 April 1855 Source: Henry David Thoreau,...
by beatriceotto | Jul 21, 2017 | writing & writers |
Something whistlingly clean about this; good writing hitting its target with speed and precision, and a latent force behind every sentence. ‘The art of composition is as simple as the discharge of a bullet from a rifle, and its masterpieces imply an infinitely...
