Poetry Workshop: Similes

Welcome to the first poetry workshop! In this series, you will be introduced to a myriad of poetic techniques and styles and discover how Tracy K. Smith in particular employs such tools in her own writing. Today, let’s dive into Smith’s intentional and masterful use of similes.

What is a simile?

I bet that most of you have heard of a simile and know the general gist of what a simile is. But for those who are unfamiliar with the term, a simile (according to the Merriam-Webster definition), is “a figure of speech comparing two unlike things that is often introduced by like or as.”

How does this connect to poetry?

A simile is a very common poetic device, and the same exact definition of a simile from above holds true when similes are employed in poems. But the very purpose of similes in poems is necessary to understand. In poetry in particular, similes are intentionally used as tools to help describe one thing, idea, or concept by comparing it to another, more widely known thing, idea or concept that is ostensibly unrelated. Simply, similes allow for readers to more firmly grasp intangibles – such as love, death, longing, and desire, which are common themes Smith explores – by connecting and relating them to commonly-understood tangibles. With this, readers can create mental pictures in their heads of complex notions discussed in a certain poem, as well as link together different parts of a poem, through the deeper sense of understanding they are granted by poets’ purposeful use of similes. 

Similes in Tracy K. Smith’s Poems:

“Luis takes my hand in his hand / And draws circles in the air / Above my head. I am spinning. /

Sloppily at first, until my mind / Begins to understand that grace / Is a different phenomenon here, / And lets go of my two legs, / Allowing them to dance on their own / Like the legs of a chicken” (Serenade from The Body’s Question, 7).

In this section, Smith describes the feeling of being touched by Luis, and the feeling of dancing with the soft touch of his body grazing her own, with the essence and spirit of his being encapsulating the outline of her figure. In expressing such feelings – feelings that are most certainly intangible, abstract, and quite difficult to put into words – Smith thoughtfully decides to compare the movement of her legs and the liberation of such a movement to her audience by relating it to the legs of a chicken. Though this simile may initially seem outlandish, making such a comparison between an indescribable sensation and a commonly-known thing allows Smith’s readers to really picture the legs of a chicken and then imagine how that image connects to that of her legs in that moment.

“There’s still a pond behind your mother’s old house, / Still a stable with horses, a tractor rusted and stuck / Like a trophy in mud” (Interrogative from Duende, 53).

In this stanza, Smith compares a piece of her family – an old, stuck rusted tractor from her mother’s childhood home – that readers would not otherwise be familiar with by comparing its appearance to that of a trophy covered in mud. This simile is very helpful in picturing what Smith is talking about, because we as readers have no idea what her family’s tractor looks like in real life. However, by creating a connection between the tractor and a muddy trophy, Smith deliberately allows for her audience to have a firmer grasp on and a better understanding of the unique and personal object she is describing. 

“Your voice crashed through the alley / Like a dog with tin cans tied to its tail” (‘I Killed You Because You Didn’t Go to School and Had No Future’ from Duende, 63).

Describing the sound of a voice, the air with which it is released from one’s mouth and out into the world around it, is no easy feat. Therefore, in order to convey to her readers the true nature of the voice she intends to describe – its crashing into the surrounding environment, its loudness, its urgency, and its anger – Smith compares it to the sound a dog makes when it scampers with tins attached to its tail. Just like the two examples above, Smith makes her complex writing and the multi-layered subjects she discusses in her poem more comprehensible and digestible for readers by likening such things to tangible, understandable ideas.