Good metaphors and similes are fulfilling. They can make you smile in recognition and shudder in imagination. They can evoke laughter and empathy. They bring memories closer to the surface, and they bring true understanding to the reader. Clever comparisons in similes and metaphors connect with the reader in a variety of ways. For me, I could feel “Her heart fell parachuteless.” I could see “The afternoon was getting dolled up in extravagant pinks and violets" for the evening. I could imagine “arm- in- arm clouds.” I was shocked yet intrigued when I read “The afternoon was in need of blood.” And I enjoy reading new word usages such as “clouds zebra’d
with lightning.”
Born in New Zealand, Terence Hodgson has been collecting metaphors and similes, including the ones mentioned above, for over twenty years! The metaphors and similes compiled for Eyes Like Butterflies, arranged by topics ranging from Abstraction to Year,
originate from contemporary books and short stories written in English. For each metaphor and simile,
Hodgson includes the author and title of the book from which the entry originates. Some categories, such as Blush, Elbow, and Fury, have only one entry, but there are a few categories with pages of entries. Word, Voice, Cloud and Face have multiple pages devoted to similes and metaphors.
Authors include Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Amis, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood and Carol Shields.
Great similes and metaphors bring a reader to the truth that an author wants to convey.
In doing so, authors can really be original and let their creativity soar. This is a book of brilliance!