Figurative Meanings and Ideational Categorization of Similes in Emily Dickinson’s Selected Poems

Abstract

The current paper attempts to analyze the similes which were recruited by the American poet Emily Dickinson. Simile is an indispensable literary device in poetry which involves comparing one object with the other object. It usually draws a comparison between two unrelated things, but the core of this comparison is to establish a conceptual theme that conveys a figurative meaning. Typically, simile is an explicit comparison incorporating an imagery, while metaphor represents an implicit comparison between two dissimilar things in order to incarnate a certain image as well. The basic objectives of this research is to conduct a figurative analysis of poetic similes employed in Dickinson’s poetry in order to grasp their figurative meanings. The other objective is to classify similes into ideational types. However, simile is a very significant figure of speech which creates a novel image in the poem. As simile makes the poet’s language more innovative, emotional and effective. Figuratively, simile is regarded as a type of metaphor – a mode which is based on producing a vivid description of someone or something for rhetorical purposes and symbolic effects. The corpora of similes were taken from different poems of Dickinson. The fact that similes can be classified conceptually has been totally proved .