Summer Similes (and other summer-themed poetic devices)

Similes + Metaphors

Similes and metaphors are a perfect place to start. These poetic devices are often spoken about in tandem – most likely due to their similarities. (Don’t worry, we have tips and tricks to tell them apart!)

Similes and metaphors are both poetic devices that compare two things. The difference comes with how we compare those two things.

Similes always have a comparative word.

Metaphors always directly compare two things.

Understanding the difference between metaphors and similes will come with practice. Metaphors can look like “[object a] is [object b],” making it difficult to pick them out of the text; you have to see the implicit comparison within the words, though the difference can be more clearly seen in the origin of the wording.

The word simile comes from the Latin word simulus, which means “similar to” or “like.”

“Metaphor” comes from the Greek word metapharein. This means “to transfer.”

Think of it this way: Metaphors transfer the essence of one object into another.

“The snow is a white blanket on the forest floor.”

This phrase “transfers” the concept of snow into a blanket.

Using the exact phrase but as a simile, you see the comparison word used

“The snow is like a blanket on the forest floor.”

Simile

Includes two things being compared using a comparison word to link them.

Comparative words include: like, as, so, or that.

It was as dark as a cave.
The ice cream was cold, like the arctic.
The marble was smaller than an earring.

Metaphor

Will not have a comparison word to link the meanings.

It’s raining cats and dogs.
The classroom is a zoo right now.
I’m a night owl.

Examples of Summer Similes and Metaphors

Summer Similes

It’s as hot as an oven outside.
The water was as clear as glass.
You were sweating like a pig.
They swam like a fish.
Her dress was as cute as a kitten’s.
We were as cool as a cucumber in the shade.

Summer Metaphors

It’s a sauna outside today.
The sun is a gift from god.
The sun is a warm hug.

Idioms

An idiom is a phrase with a meaning other than what the original words mean; in other words, an idiom’s figurative sense is often different from the literal. However, many expressions that we use today have an origin that comes from the literal meaning of the words. See below for the origin of some of the most popular summer-themed idioms.

Social butterfly

Meaning: To be outgoing and social/to flit from one social event to the next.

Origin: Social butterfly was originally a derogatory term used to describe people who would go from social event to social event without much care about who they were interacting with. Social butterflies were seen as materialistic and disingenuous. This was in the 1800s, and since then, the phrase “Social Butterfly” has lost much of its negative connotations and is now used to describe someone outgoing, friendly, and enjoys social events.

Lead down the garden path

Meaning: To be led down (or up) the garden path by a friend means they are not being honest about what they say.

Origin: It isn’t easy to pinpoint this idiom’s exact source, though a possible explanation is from the early 1900s. Villages would marry off who they deemed the most unattractive woman by tricking the groom into marrying her while she was veiled. He would only see her face once the marriage was complete. In this scenario, the weddings were held in gardens, and the groom would be led up the garden path.

Other theories suggest that this idiom refers to someone so distracted by the garden’s beauty that they are easily fooled.

Have a green thumb

Meaning: To be good at gardening.

Origin: Algae that grows outside planting pots will stain a person’s fingers (and thumbs). Therefore, a person who always handles pots has a green thumb.

More idioms and their origins:

Spill the beans

Meaning: To reveal a secret.

Origin: The phrase arose from a method of voting in which a voter put a bean into one of several cups, indicating the candidate they chose. If the beans were spilled, then hypothetically, one may know which cup had the most beans before the voting or counting had finished, meaning they would have an idea of the winner.

Turn a blind eye

Meaning: To refuse to acknowledge that you know something important.

Origin: This came from British Admiral Horatio Nelson, blind in one eye. The story goes that a fellow admiral was trying to communicate with Nelson via flags, telling him that he should retreat. Nelson felt that he could push on. Holding the telescope to his blind eye, he pretended not to see the signals, mentioning to a fellow officer something about reserving the right to use his blind eye now and again.

Personification

Personification is the attribution of human characteristics to inanimate objects or abstract ideas.

You can often see things like cities, countries, and natural things like seasons, trees, and rain being personified in literature. The purpose of personification is to make the description of non-human objects more vivid and to help readers understand, sympathize, or emotionally react to non-human characters or things.

You can see personification’s effects when looking at ancient gods and goddesses. Deities in ancient Greek would often be described as gods of specific inanimate objects. For example, in the old Greek tales, you hear about Zeus, the god of thunder, Eos, the goddess of dawn, and even smaller mythical creatures like nymphs (spirits of the trees), naiads (animals who took care of the springs), and much more.

These days, personification is often used in literature. A few examples of summer-themed personification can be seen below:

The sun looked down at the people of Earth.
The grass whispered as the wind danced through it.
The warm weather greeted me this morning.
The branches on the tree waved in the wind.
The thunder engaged in a dialog with the lightning.

Hyperbole

A hyperbole is an exaggerated claim that isn’t meant to be taken literally. Instead, they emphasize solid feelings and help the reader understand the speaker’s point. Typically, they will be used in the form of humor, excitement, distress, and other strong emotions.

The word “hyperbole” comes from the ancient Greek words for “above” and “throw, “ which makes sense, as hyperboles usually describe something that is exaggerated to explain a point.

Hyperboles are often used in advertising and everyday language. Hyperboles can be a great language tool to exaggerate the benefits of a product to boost sales. Repetitive hyperbole is used in political advertisements and propaganda to give competitors a lousy reputation and increase a different person’s popularity.

Summer hyperboles

Once summer vacation is here, I can do whatever I want!
She got to the edge of the diving board. She was so nervous that she felt like a shaky leaf on a tree.
They serve mountain-sized ice cream.
I didn’t sleep all night.
The sun was shining from the heavens.
We spent all day in the sun.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia is just as fun to use as it is to say. Onomatopoeia is when a word is used to represent a sound or an exclamation. These words will usually phonetically imitate the sound that it describes. For example, “Bang!”, “Squawk!” and “Crash!” are all examples of onomatopoeia.

Onomatopoeia can be combined with other figurative devices, such as alliteration, to create different effects. A famous example is the phrase “furrow followed free” in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In this example, the combination of the three words recreates the sound of ripples following in the wake of a speeding ship.

The same example occurs in the line “as the surf surged up the sun swept shore…” which recreates the sounds of the waves breaking on the beach from the poem “I, She, and the Sea.”

Summer-themed onomatopoeia examples