Familiarity
The most powerful similes are those in which the comparison is universally recognized. Of course, no comparison is completely familiar to everyone, but some come very close. In America—and, apparently, England—the following simile attains near-perfection for its suggestive familiarity:
“Jock now behaved, to be exact,
Precisely as car-salesman act.”
The Emperor’s Garments
“The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a virtual cornucopia of metaphor and similes. The bulk of them go toward the purpose of selling the king on his clothing, but the fact that his clothing doesn’t really exist also affords opportunity:
“And even when it’s icy cold
You still feel warm as molten gold.”
“I feel as though as I’m going to roast!
This suit will keep me warm as toast!”
“They stopped. They gasped. There stood the King
As naked as a piece of string,
As naked as a popinjay.”
Aladdin and Food
One particular passage in “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” is curiously heavy on the food metaphor in its description of the transformation from mortal into genie. (For that is Aladdin’s wish, to become a genie).
“Aladdin felt as though his belly
Was being filled with boiling jelly,
As if his blood was being dried,
As though his flesh was being fried,
As if his body and his soul
Were cooking in a casserole.”
Open Sesame
Across the way from Aladdin stands Ali Baba who has just discovered the secret phrase “Open Sesame” and uses it to open doors to the Ritz Hotel in London. Because, you know, why not, right? The Ritz turns out to be far more interesting than a cave in the desert. It opens Ali Baba to the specifically peculiar habits to the playboys of the western world:
“The rich have most peculiar habits,
Less like humans, more like rabbits!”
“They surged into the passageway
In various states of disarray,
Some naked as the day is long
With absolutely nothing on.”
Darkness
Darkness provides ample opportunity for writers to work their figurative language skills. There might well be more metaphorical phrases engaging darkness than there are that engage light and light has long been a go-to metaphorical goldmine as well:
“A ghoulish snarling ghastly sound
Came up from somewhere underground,
Then slimy tendrils tugged his coat
And tried to fasten round his throat.
An icy wind swept through the cave,
Then darkness darker than the grave”
