It depends on the effect you are trying to achieve, the way the poem scans, what comes before and after. But they are powerful tools in the poet's pen. They conjure up images, and are more instantly descriptive than a yard of prose. If you think of the rough and tumble of a rugby football game, and then conjure up the image of the ball being a giant egg, I think you can immediately sense the delicacy and nimbleness of the runner and the awful smashing of the egg at touch. If you've ever trodden on a thistle with a bare foot, you can immediately sense the pain of the cat's claws.
Writers use simile and metaphor in prose too, to bring life and richness to what they have to say.
Page created on 3rd November 1999 This page was last updated on 27 November 1999 .