Definition: Literary device that uses comparisons between two things that are alike in some way using the words like and as to highlight a specific feature. It can also be used to make a description more vivid, add depth, and/or emotion to the specific phrase.
Example: “Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, / Her cheeks were like the dawn of day, / And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,” (lines 5-7) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Wreck of the Hesperus”
Context: This comparison is found just at the beginning of the ballad or in the exposition. These lines are used as characterization of the skipper's daughter to highlight certain aspects of her physical appearance. In addition to this, the reader knows that the skipper has just brought his …show more content…
Her eyes are compared to “fairy flax” to allow the reader to picture their cerulean blue color (line 5). Her cheeks’ red color emphasized in their comparison “the dawn of day” and her the bosom’s bright white color to “the hawthorn buds, / [t]hat ope in the month of May” (lines 6-7). Not only is the simile used to give specific imagery to her physical aspects, but also to emphasize her innocence and purity. The color white is attributed to this. On account of her red cheeks, and the attribution of the color white, the reader can infer that the skipper’s daughter is very young in age. It only goes to make the story even more tragic because this young, pure, and innocent little girl is taken to a place where she doesn’t have any business going to and ends up getting frozen to death with nothing to save her. The worst part of it all is that because of the skipper’s ignorance in not heeding the old sailor’s “...fear[s] [of] a hurricane” he has condemned his daughter to death (line 16). The injustice of her death is further emphasized when “the maiden clasped her hands and prayed / [t]hat saved she might be” (lines 53-54). So as a result of these similes Longfellow has given characterization of the skipper’s daughter, brought light to her youth, innocence, and purity, and pulled at the heartstrings of the reader through her untimely death on a ship she had no reason to
Example: “Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax, / Her cheeks were like the dawn of day, / And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,” (lines 5-7) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Wreck of the Hesperus”
Context: This comparison is found just at the beginning of the ballad or in the exposition. These lines are used as characterization of the skipper's daughter to highlight certain aspects of her physical appearance. In addition to this, the reader knows that the skipper has just brought his …show more content…
Her eyes are compared to “fairy flax” to allow the reader to picture their cerulean blue color (line 5). Her cheeks’ red color emphasized in their comparison “the dawn of day” and her the bosom’s bright white color to “the hawthorn buds, / [t]hat ope in the month of May” (lines 6-7). Not only is the simile used to give specific imagery to her physical aspects, but also to emphasize her innocence and purity. The color white is attributed to this. On account of her red cheeks, and the attribution of the color white, the reader can infer that the skipper’s daughter is very young in age. It only goes to make the story even more tragic because this young, pure, and innocent little girl is taken to a place where she doesn’t have any business going to and ends up getting frozen to death with nothing to save her. The worst part of it all is that because of the skipper’s ignorance in not heeding the old sailor’s “...fear[s] [of] a hurricane” he has condemned his daughter to death (line 16). The injustice of her death is further emphasized when “the maiden clasped her hands and prayed / [t]hat saved she might be” (lines 53-54). So as a result of these similes Longfellow has given characterization of the skipper’s daughter, brought light to her youth, innocence, and purity, and pulled at the heartstrings of the reader through her untimely death on a ship she had no reason to