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Conceit Simile

Metaphysics
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A conceit employing explicit comparison using "like" or "as," creating comparison less audacious than metaphor but still generating surprise and insight through unexpected similarity between unlike things.

Detailed Definition
Similes allow metaphysical poets to make comparisons more gently than metaphor while still generating intellectual pleasure through unexpected likeness. By explicitly acknowledging comparison rather than asserting identification, similes create different rhetorical effects, potentially suggesting humility about claims being made or inviting readers' judgment of comparison's validity.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” uses the simile of lovers as compass legs; Emily Dickinson’s “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” uses the simile of hope as a bird; George Herbert’s “The Flower” uses the simile of spiritual renewal as seasonal blooming; Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” uses the simile of reflection as a lake; T.S. Eliot’s “Prufrock” uses the simile of the yellow fog as a cat; Robert Frost’s “Birches” uses the simile of life’s burdens as bent trees.
Additional Notes
Conceit Simile extends comparison beyond ornament—Donne’s “like gold to airy thinness beat” in “A Valediction” uses metallurgical simile to argue love’s expansion without breakage, grounding emotion in material process.
Also Known As
Similitude Conceit Comparative Phrase Likeness Metaphor
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