I was teaching figurative language in poetry today, and we discussed similes and metaphors. I asked them to think of some examples, maybe from song lyrics. Well, since everyone knows my obsessions at school, I threw in some Eagles and Fleetwood Mac.
"An example of a simile would be 'Life goes on like a broken-down carousel where somebody left the music on.'" We then proceeded to analyze it a bit. "Does this image give you a positive or negative overall impression? Why would the author choose a carousel - what kinds of connotations and associations do we have with carousels that make this an effective simile? Why doesn't the author simply stop with the broken-down carousel; how does the continuance of the carousel's music reflect the emotional state of the person whose 'life goes on'?"
A student asked me which song that was from, which made me wish I had picked one I liked better as I sheepishly answered "You Never Cry Like a Lover". It made me wish I'd picked a song I liked better; I told him to listen to more than just that song if he wanted to check out the Eagles, lol.
It made me think though - it would be fun if we could list some of our favorite similes and/or metaphors from Eagles songs! Solo songs are OK, too.
For those who don't remember what a simile or metaphor is from your high school days, here's the definitions courtesy of Dictionary.com:
Simile: a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox ).
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.” (Nancy's Note: unlike a simile, it does not use "like" or "as").
Fire away!