Comparison. Examples of comparison in literature - in prose and poetry. Definition and examples of comparisons in Russian Poetic comparison 8

In ordinary conversation, we from time to time use comparisons of one thing with another. For example, we say “he is strong as an ox” or “she is as beautiful as her first love.” These expressions help us illustrate our words with a powerful example. This is how our speech becomes more vivid and interesting.

It would be strange if poets and writers did not use such a technique for decorating speech. Indeed, artistic comparison is quite common in literature. Researchers classify comparisons as phrases, i.e., those phrases that are based on changes in the meaning of words and expressions. This term is defined as a comparison of objects or phenomena according to some common characteristic. In the comparison structure, there is an object of comparison (i.e. the object in question), a means of comparison (the object with which the object is compared) and a common attribute. In our example, the object will be “he” - a certain man, the means - a bull, and the sign - the power inherent in both a man and an animal.

In speech, comparison is formalized using conjunctions “as if (would)”, “as if (would)”, “exactly”, “as”, prepositions “like”, “like”, adjectives “similar )" and other designs. Based on the design used, several types of comparisons are distinguished:

• comparisons in the form of a comparative phrase expressed using a preposition or conjunction:

Chernobrova, stately, like white sugar!..
It became creepy, I didn’t finish my song.
And she - nothing, stood, walked,
Looked back: behind her how crazy I looked.

“Gardener”, N. A. Nekrasov;

• comparisons formed by using a noun in the instrumental case

And bright gold and pure silver
Snakes transparent clouds outlines…

“On the Dnieper in Flood”, A. A. Fet;

• non-union comparisons formulated in the form of a sentence with a compound nominal predicate:

Gigantic monsters -
The heavy dream of centuries...

“In the Kingdom of Ice”, K. D. Balmont;

• denying comparisons (“Trying is not torture”).

Comparisons have been used to enrich speech for a long time. In Aristotle’s book “Rhetoric” we find reflections on the fact that Socrates already made comparisons to illustrate his theses and thus make them clearer to his listeners. An entire chapter (Chapter IV, Volume III) of this work is devoted to comparisons and how they should be used correctly in speech. The philosopher emphasizes that this technique is more appropriate in poetic speech: “Comparison is also useful in prose, but in few cases, since [in general it belongs] to the field of poetry,” since it makes speech more elegant and successful.

It must be said that this idea of ​​Aristotle is confirmed by numerous examples of excellent comparisons taken from lyrical works, which really give the lines beauty and expressiveness. Here are a few passages from the works of Aristotle's contemporaries that contain comparisons:

Was the sea is filled with corpses, like the sky is filled with stars:
Blind,
Breathless,
They tickled the waves, burdened the shores...

“Persians”, Timofey Miletsky, translation by M. L. Gasparov.

Jumping up from the black earth in a swift rush,
The son of Peleus took off easily, like a hawk takes off, -
The ever-flowing spring began to flow under his feet.

Antimachus of Colophon, translation by O. Tsybenko.

We also find comparisons in the works of medieval authors:

Turning into an ermine-squirrel,
He rushed to the reeds Prince Igor

And swam like Gogol, on the wave,
Flew like the wind, on horseback.

The horse fell and prince off your horse,
Jumps like a gray wolf he's home.

Like a falcon, hovering into the clouds
Seeing Donets from afar.

“The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”, translation by N. A. Zabolotsky.

And then the sword, dipped in the blood of the vile, blade like ice, in hand began to melt- it was a miracle: iron melted like ice floes, when the Creator breaks the shackles of winter at sea.

“Beowulf”, translation by V. Tikhomirov.

Joseph was without food, like wolves in the steppe, and for crumbs
From this stingy table lions rush like cats.

“On Old Age”, Nizami Ganjavi, translation by K. Lipskerov and S. Shervinsky.

In this regard, one cannot help but recall the work of the figures of the Golden Age of Russian poetry. In many works original and picturesque comparisons are found:

And all like a dream, your age has passed.
Like a dream, like a sweet dream,
My youth has also disappeared;
Beauty is not very tender,
It’s not so much joy that delights...
“On the death of Prince Meshchersky”, G. R. Derzhavin.

Now, barely awakened soul,
Before the mother, as if before Fate,
Carefree he plays in the cradle
And young joys arrived...

“To the Empress Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna on the birth of V. kN. Alexander Nikolaevich. Message”, V. A. Zhukovsky.

What's in a name?
It will die like a sad noise
Waves splashed on the distant shore,
Like the sound of the night in the deep forest.

“What’s in your name...”, A. S. Pushkin.

Here the king frowned his black eyebrows
AND fixed his eyes on him vigilant,
Like a hawk looked from above
To a young blue-winged dove, -
Yes, the young fighter did not look up.

“Song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov,” M. Yu. Lermontov.

Poets Silver Age they also often resorted to comparisons to give their lines imagery and depth:

On a spring day the boy is angry
He pierced the birch bark with a knife, -
AND drops of juice, like tears,
Tekli transparent stream.

“On a spring day, an angry boy ...”, F. K. Sologub.

Or you, oh woman, in a new guise,
Modest as a shadow and naked as day,
You will lure me to horrors ready -
To the “Underground Dwelling” or to the meadows?…

“What else can you dream about?”, V. Ya. Bryusov.

There are also comparisons among Soviet poets.

The wind sings and rings over the river,
Near the cliff the reeds crackle,
Green pines wave their scarves,
The sky inflated like a tight sail.
“Summer hike”, E. A. Asadov.

And now I
I enter the city, the winds are cleaner...
I sniff the air like an animal
On human ashes.
“Scout”, O. F. Berggolts.

We find comparisons in the works of modern Russian poets:

Opened road view
tangled like mycelium,
I have achieved change
how much could have changed.

“Earthquake in Tse Bay”, A. M. Parshchikov.

And light-winged, long-legged,
And weightless, like a spirit,
fearless, like demigods,
and subtle, like a singing ear…

“Prayer”, T. Yu. Kibirov.

We would venture to suggest that comparison, with some diligence, can be found in the works of all poets. This is not surprising, because comparison helps to isolate important feature or the property of a certain object, focus attention on it, and finally give the lines detail and versatility, resurrecting additional images in the reader’s mind. That is why comparisons remain a popular trope for most authors.

To introduce students to comparison and its varieties, methods of expression, role in the text;

Develop the ability to use comparison in your speech;

Develop speech and imagination;

To arouse interest in linguistic phenomena and the works of M. Yu. Lermontov.

• Lesson equipment:

Interactive board;

Explanatory dictionary edited by S. I. Ozhegov;

Reproduction of I. I. Shishkin’s painting “In the Wild North”;

Reproductions of landscapes by M. Yu. Lermontov.

• Epigraph for the lesson:

Everything is known by comparison. Confucius

• During the classes:

1. ORGANIZATIONAL PART OF THE CLASS.

Greeting students;

Message from the teacher about the topic and goals of the lesson.

2. MAIN PART OF THE CLASS.

*a) Introductory conversation.

Teacher.

In today's lesson we will continue to get acquainted with the features of an artistic style or style fiction.

The language of fiction has always been considered the pinnacle of literary language. All the best in language, its possibilities, its beauty - all this is expressed in the best works of art. Literary speech is a kind of mirror of literary language.

Since ancient times, inquisitive and inquisitive people (philosophers, psychologists, linguists) have been trying to explain the miracle of transforming words into poetry and harmony. One of the possible, but far from complete and not final explanations is the existence of special expressive words (means), language resources.

1.For what purpose are literary texts created? (Literary texts arouse in us a sense of beauty, beauty. Scientific prose affects the mind, artistic prose affects the feelings. The scientist thinks in concepts, the artist - in images. The first reason, analyze, prove, the second draws, shows, depicts. This is the peculiarity language of fiction).

2.What means of expression are characteristic of the artistic style? (Writers and poets often use metaphors, epithets, comparisons and other techniques and means).

3.What are called tropes in linguistics? (A trope is a figure of speech in which a word or expression is used figuratively).

4.What types of tropes do you know? (In addition to metaphors, epithets, comparisons, tropes include metonymy, hyperbole, litotes, irony, allegory, personification, periphrasis).

In today's lesson we will take a closer look at comparison as a means artistic expression text, we will get acquainted with its varieties and methods of expression, we will develop the skill of using comparisons in our speech.

How can a text attract us? First of all, the brightness and richness of colors, i.e. expressive means language, among which one of the main places is occupied by comparison.

Here are two suggestions:

• 1. Below was Kazbek, covered with never-melting snow.

• 2.Under him, Kazbek, like the face of a diamond, shone with eternal snow. (Mikhail Lermontov)

(Suggestions are displayed on the interactive board).

Although both sentences contain the same idea, there is a huge difference between them. If in the first phrase we are told only some information, information, then in the second we see a picturesque picture painted with words. The man stands tall, tall. And he sees far below an extraordinary, colorful sight: a mountain covered with eternal snows of blinding whiteness in a radiance sun rays shimmers like the face of a diamond with all the colors of the rainbow.

Using comparison, Lermontov painted an amazing verbal picture with just a few words.

5. How do you understand the epigraph for today’s lesson? (We are surrounded by a world of objects and phenomena, a world of colors and sounds, shapes. A person constantly strives to compare something with something, to grasp the similarities and differences of phenomena - this helps him to understand the world).

(Students write down a topic and an epigraph in their notebooks, which are displayed on the interactive board).

• b) Work with a reproduction of the painting by I. I. Shishkin “In the Wild North”.

(A reproduction of a painting by I. I. Shishkin is displayed on the interactive board; for 2-3 minutes, students look at it and at the same time listen to a poem by M. Yu. Lermontov performed by a trained student).

It's lonely in the wild north

There's a pine tree on the bare top,

And dozes, swaying, and snow falls

She is dressed like a robe.

And she dreams of everything in the distant desert,

In the region where the sun rises,

Alone and sad on a flammable cliff

A beautiful palm tree is growing.

• c) Introducing the concept of “comparison”.

1.Work with the poem “In the Wild North...”

Write down Lermontov's lines from memory. Test yourself. Explain spellings and punctograms.

What means of expression are present in the text? (Inversion, epithets, assonance, personification.)

2.Working with an explanatory dictionary.

Look at Explanatory dictionary Russian language S.I. Ozhegova, what is a chasuble.

Riza– 1.Vestment, the priest’s clothing for worship (brocade chasuble). 2. Setting on the icon.

What is the role of this comparison in the text?

How does this comparison arise? ?(Based on the similarity: a pine tree is wrapped in snow, like a robe - White color, silver, splendor...)

Many linguists do not classify comparisons as tropes, explaining that in comparisons the meanings of words do not change. What is your point of view on this problem?

(During the discussions, students come to the conclusion that if this is an expressive, vivid, figurative comparison, like Lermontov’s, then there is an “increase in meaning,” therefore, this is a trope.)

Try to define comparison as artistic medium. (Students give different definitions of comparison, from which the main features of comparison are isolated: an original unusual comparison; the likening of two objects; a technique of artistic speech; it allows you to more vividly, clearly, concisely present objects and phenomena, etc.)

Compare your definition with the definition of the textbook “Russian Speech” by E.I. Nikitina.

(Writing in a notebook : Comparison is one of the techniques of artistic speech, a comparison of two objects or phenomena with the aim of showing, depicting one of them with the help of the other.)

Comparison structure:

"item"(what is being compared) "sign"(what it is compared on the basis of) "image"(what it is compared to).

*gIntroduction to the structural diversity of comparisons.

Teacher's explanation.

Compared to other tropes, similes are structurally diverse. Usually they appear in the form of a comparative phrase, attached with the help of conjunctions like, exactly, as if, as if, as if, etc. The same subordinating conjunctions can also attach comparative clauses.

For example: It’s nice and warm, like near a stove in winter, and the birches stand like big candles. (S. Yesenin). The heavens are falling to the ground, like a fringed curtain... (B. Pasternak). Often comparisons take the form of nouns in the instrumental case: His beaver collar silvers with frosty dust... (A. Pushkin).

There are comparisons that are introduced by the words similar, similar, reminds, acting as a predicate: The maple leaf reminds us of amber. (N. Zabolotsky).

Comparisons are widely used in folk poetry and in works of oral folk art. Folk poetic comparisons are distinguished by simplicity, imagery and deep lyricism. Basically, these are comparisons with the natural world: a girl is compared with a birch tree, a swan; young man - with a falcon; evil - with a kite, etc.

Negative comparisons are common in works of oral folk art. From folklore, these comparisons passed into Russian poetry: It is not the wind that rages over the forest, it is not the streams that run from the mountains - the frost-voivode patrols his domain. (N. Nekrasov). Negative comparisons pit one thing against another.

Comparisons that point to several common features in comparable objects are called expanded. The detailed comparison includes two parallel images in which the author finds much in common. The artistic image used for a detailed comparison gives the description special expressiveness.

The origin of the idea is perhaps best explained by comparison. The idea is lightning. Electricity accumulates above the ground for many days. When the atmosphere is saturated with it to the limit, white cumulus clouds turn into thunderclouds and the first spark is born from the thick electric infusion - lightning.

Almost immediately after the lightning, rain falls on the ground. For the appearance of a plan, just like for the appearance of lightning, most often an insignificant push is needed. If lightning is a plan, then rainfall is the embodiment of a plan. These are harmonious flows of images and words. (K. Paustovsky).

• e) Consolidation of the studied material.

1. Remembering the structure of the comparison (subject, sign, image), find these elements in an excerpt from the poem “Mtsyri” by M. Yu. Lermontov:

A few years ago,

Where, merging, they make noise,

Hugging like two sisters,

The streams of Aragva and Kura,

There was a monastery.

(“Subject” - the rivers Aragva and Kura, “image” - sisters, “sign” - kinship).

2. Why is this comparison so important in the artistic fabric of the poem? (Mtsyri is looking for a kindred spirit. Comparison with the natural world strengthens the motive of the protagonist’s loneliness).

3. In which work does M. Yu. Lermontov widely use the technique of folk poetic comparison? (In “Song about the merchant Kalashnikov”).

4. In Alena Dmitrievna’s description, find and write down folk poetic comparisons in your notebook:

In Holy Rus', our mother,

You can’t find, you can’t find such a beauty:

Walks smoothly - like a swan;

He looks sweet - like a darling;

Says a word - the nightingale sings;

Her rosy cheeks are burning,

Like the dawn in God's sky.

5.What is the peculiarity of the comparison in the following lines of Lermontov’s epigram:

Ah, Anna Alekseevna,

What a happy day!

My fate is deplorable

I'm standing here like a tree stump.

(Comparison is a phraseological unit. There is no isolation!)

6. There are more than 140 phraseological comparisons in the Russian language. Let's remember some of them:

He is afraid of me... (like fire);

Everything is going... (like clockwork);

Beautiful...(like a god);

Know...(like your own five;

You can’t see...(like your ears).

What are these phraseological comparisons based on? Why, for example, is water off a duck's back and not on a chicken?

7 .Comparison should always be based on similarity. Otherwise, the comparison will be unsuccessful and not only will not make the speech expressive, but, on the contrary, will make it funny.

Why the following comparisons fail:(exercise 283, part 3. Textbook “Russian speech”)

8. Comparisons are based on the similarity of characteristics, but the similarity should be based on imagery and expressiveness. For example, the comparison “white as snow” cannot be considered successful; here the imagery loses and weakens. New, unexpected comparisons are interesting, when the author notices something that no one noticed.

Continue the sentences using comparisons:

Leaves stuck to the window glass...(like wet butterflies);

Bright orange...(like the midday sun);

Rare rain...(like long glass threads);

The roads spread out in all directions...(like crayfish when they were poured out of a bag).

(In parentheses are quotes from the works of K. Paustovsky, N.V. Gogol, which are used by the teacher as a model. Students come up with their own original comparisons).

9).Working with text. (Excerpts from the novel "A Hero of Our Time", which are beautiful landscape sketches, with comparisons missing, are displayed on the screen. Also on the board are reproductions of paintings by M. Yu. Lermontov - Caucasian views).

Try to restore Lermontov's comparisons in the text.

Option 1.

On all sides there are inaccessible mountains, reddish rocks, hung with green ivy and crowned with clumps of plane trees, yellow cliffs, streaked with gullies, and there, high, high, a golden fringe of snow, and below Aragva, embracing another nameless river, noisily bursting out of a black gorge full of darkness, stretches...(with a silver thread) and sparkles...(like a snake with its scales) (“Bela”).

Option 2

Mashuk rises to the north,...(like a Persian hat), and covers this entire part of the sky. And on the edge of the horizon stretches a silver chain of snowy peaks, starting with Kazbek and ending with the double-headed Elbrus... The air is clean and fresh,... (like a child’s kiss); the sun is bright, the sky is blue - what else seems to be more? Why are there passions, desires, regrets?..

The restored text is displayed on the screen, and students compare their works.

3.FINAL PART OF THE LESSON.

• 1. Come up with a comparison for today’s lesson, write it down in your notebook.

• 2. Do you think Confucius is right when he believes that “everything is known by comparison”? (See the epigraph to the lesson). Prove your point.

• 3.Homework ( by students' choice):

Find ten examples of comparisons in the works of A. S. Pushkin; explain with the help of what linguistic means they were created

Select original comparisons for the indicated words, compose a small coherent text with them: stars, morning dawn, lake, moon.

• 4. Commented grading for work in class.

TROPE

Trope is a word or expression used figuratively to create artistic image and achieving greater expressiveness. Paths include techniques such as epithet, comparison, personification, metaphor, metonymy, sometimes they include hyperboles and litotes. No work of art is complete without tropes. The artistic word is ambiguous; the writer creates images, playing with meanings and combinations of words, using the environment of the word in the text and its sound - all this constitutes the artistic possibilities of the word, which is the only tool of the writer or poet.
Note! When creating a trope, the word is always used in a figurative sense.

Let's consider different types tropes:

EPITHET(Greek Epitheton, attached) is one of the tropes, which is an artistic, figurative definition. An epithet can be:
adjectives: gentle face (S. Yesenin); these poor villages, this meager nature...(F. Tyutchev); transparent maiden (A. Blok);
participles: edge abandoned(S. Yesenin); frenzied dragon (A. Blok); takeoff illuminated(M. Tsvetaeva);
nouns, sometimes together with their surrounding context: Here he is, leader without squads(M. Tsvetaeva); My youth! My little dove is dark!(M. Tsvetaeva).

Any epithet reflects the uniqueness of the author’s perception of the world, therefore it necessarily expresses some kind of assessment and has a subjective meaning: a wooden shelf is not an epithet, so there is no artistic definition here, a wooden face is an epithet expressing the speaker’s impression of the interlocutor’s facial expression, that is, creating an image.
There are stable (permanent) folklore epithets: remote, portly, kind Well done, It's clear sun, as well as tautological, that is, repetition epithets, the same root with the defined word: Eh, bitter grief, boring boredom, mortal! (A. Blok).

In a work of art an epithet can perform various functions:

• describe the subject figuratively: shining eyes, eyes- diamonds;
• create an atmosphere, mood: gloomy morning;
• convey the attitude of the author (storyteller, lyrical hero) to the subject being characterized: “Where will our prankster?" (A. Pushkin);
• combine all previous functions in equal shares (in most cases of using the epithet).

Note! All color terms in a literary text they are epithets.

COMPARISON is an artistic technique (trope) in which an image is created by comparing one object with another. Comparison differs from other artistic comparisons, for example, likenings, in that it always has a strict formal sign: a comparative construction or a turnover with comparative conjunctions as if, as if, exactly, as if and the like. Expressions like he looked like... cannot be considered a comparison as a trope.

Examples of comparisons:

Comparison also plays certain roles in the text: sometimes authors use the so-called detailed comparison, revealing various signs of a phenomenon or conveying one’s attitude towards several phenomena. Often a work is entirely based on comparison, such as, for example, V. Bryusov’s poem “Sonnet to Form”:

PERSONALIZATION- an artistic technique (trope) in which an inanimate object, phenomenon or concept is given human properties (do not be confused, exactly human!). Personification can be used narrowly, in one line, in a small fragment, but it can be a technique on which the entire work is built (“You are my abandoned land” by S. Yesenin, “Mother and the evening killed by the Germans”, “The violin and a little nervously” by V. Mayakovsky, etc.). Personification is considered one of the types of metaphor (see below).

Impersonation task- to correlate the depicted object with a person, to make it closer to the reader, to figuratively comprehend the inner essence of the object, hidden from everyday life. Personification is one of the oldest figurative means of art.

HYPERBOLA(Greek: Hyperbole, exaggeration) is a technique in which an image is created through artistic exaggeration. Hyperbole is not always included in the set of tropes, but by the nature of the use of the word in a figurative meaning to create an image, hyperbole is very close to tropes. A technique opposite in content to hyperbole is LITOTES(Greek Litotes, simplicity) is an artistic understatement.

Hyperbole allows the author to show the reader in an exaggerated form the most character traits depicted object. Often hyperbole and litotes are used by the author in an ironic way, revealing not just characteristic, but negative, from the author’s point of view, aspects of the subject.

METAPHOR(Greek Metaphora, transfer) - a type of so-called complex trope, a speech turn in which the properties of one phenomenon (object, concept) are transferred to another. A metaphor contains a hidden comparison, a figurative likening of phenomena using the figurative meaning of words; what the object is compared to is only implied by the author. No wonder Aristotle said that “to compose good metaphors means to notice similarities.”

Examples of metaphor:

METONYMY(Greek Metonomadzo, rename) - type of trope: figurative designation of an object according to one of its characteristics.

Examples of metonymy:

When studying the topic “Means of Artistic Expression” and completing assignments, pay special attention to the definitions of the concepts given. You must not only understand their meaning, but also know the terminology by heart. This will protect you from practical mistakes: knowing firmly that the technique of comparison has strict formal characteristics (see theory on topic 1), you will not confuse this technique with a number of other artistic techniques, which are also based on the comparison of several objects, but are not a comparison .

Please note that you must begin your answer either with the suggested words (by rewriting them) or with your own version of the beginning of the complete answer. This applies to all such tasks.

• Literary studies: Reference materials. - M., 1988.
• Polyakov M. Rhetoric and literature. Theoretical aspects. - In the book: Questions of poetics and artistic semantics. - M.: Sov. writer, 1978.
• Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1974.

Literature (real) represents the true craft of creating texts, the creation of a new object through words. As with any complex craft, literature has its own special techniques. One of them is “comparison”. With its help, for greater expressiveness or ironic contrast, certain objects, their qualities, people, and their character traits are compared.

In contact with

Classmates

─ Ironic likening a small inanimate object to a large animal by juxtaposing the long spout of a teapot and an elephant's trunk.

Comparison: Definition

There are at least three definitions of comparison in the literature.

For a literary text, the first definition would be more correct. But the most talented authors of fiction successfully work with the second and third definitions, so great is the role of comparison in the text. Examples of comparisons in literature and folklore of the last two types:

He is stupid as an oak, but cunning as a fox.

Unlike Afanasy Petrovich, Igor Dmitrievich was built as thin as a mop handle, just as straight and elongated.

The pygmies of the Congo Delta are like children in stature; their skin is not black like that of blacks, but yellowish, like fallen leaves.
In the latter case, along with the use of “negative comparison” (“not”), direct assimilation (“as if”) is combined.

The Russian language is so rich that authors of literary works use a huge number of types of comparisons. Philologists can only roughly classify them. Modern philology identifies the following two main types of comparison and four more comparisons in fiction.

• Direct. In this case, comparative phrases (conjunctions) “as if”, “as”, “exactly”, “as if” are used. He bared his soul to him, like a nudist bares his body on the beach..
• Indirect. With this comparison, no prepositions are used. The hurricane swept away all the garbage from the streets with a giant wiper.

In the second sentence, the noun being compared (“hurricane”) is used in the nominative case, and the noun being compared (“janitor”) is used in the instrumental case. Other types:

Back in the 19th century, philologist and Slavist M. Petrovsky identified the “Homeric” or “epic” likeness from extensive comparisons in literature. In this case, the author of a literary text, not caring about brevity, expands the comparison, distracting from the main storyline, from the object being compared as far as his imagination will allow him. Examples can easily be found in the Iliad or among postmodernists.

Ajax rushed at the enemies, like a hungry lion at the frightened sheep that had lost their shepherd, who were left without protection, defenseless, like unattended children, and could only timidly moan and back away in fear of the lion's thirst for blood and murder, which seizes the predator like madness, intensifying when he senses the horror of the doomed...
It is better for a novice author of literary texts not to resort to the epic type of comparisons. A young writer needs to wait until his literary skill and sense of artistic harmony develop. Otherwise, an inexperienced beginner himself will not notice how, winding around one another, like threads from different balls, such “free associations” will carry him away from the plot of his main narrative and create semantic confusion. So comparisons in a literary text can not only simplify the understanding of the subject being described (a tiger is a huge predatory cat), but also confuse the narrative.

Comparison in verse

The role of literary comparison in poetry is especially important. The poet uses the richness of language to create a unique and aesthetically valuable work of art, or rather to convey his thoughts to the reader.

It's often hard and bad for us

From the tricks of tricky fate,

But we are with the humility of camels

We carry the humps of our misfortunes.

With these lines, the poet explains to the reader his own idea that most of the troubles that happen in life are natural, like the humps of camels, that sometimes you simply cannot get rid of them, but you just need to “carry through” them for a while.

Without you, no work, no rest:

Are you a woman or a bird?

After all, you are like a creature of air,

"balloon" - pampered girl!

In most poems, the authors use comparisons to create a bright, beautiful, and easily memorable image. Most of all such colorful comparisons are in the texts of N. Gumilyov and Mayakovsky. But I. Brodsky remains an unsurpassed master of using detailed comparisons in artistic literary versification.

Comparisons are also used in spoken language. When writing any text, even school essay, one cannot do without comparisons. So you need to firmly remember several rules of punctuation of the literary Russian language. Commas are placed before comparative phrases with words:

• as if
• as if,
• as if,
• like,
• exactly,

So when you write:

• He was taller than the teenager she remembered.
• The day flared up quickly and hotly, like a fire into which gasoline was suddenly poured.

─ in these situations, make no mistake, commas are necessary. Much more problems awaits you with the conjunction “how”. The fact is that, even if the particle “how” is part of a comparative phrase, a comma in front of it is not needed if:

It can be replaced with a dash. The steppe is like a sea of ​​grass.

This union is part of a stable phraseological unit. Faithful as a dog.

The particle is included in the predicate. For me the past is like a dream.

The conjunction, within the meaning of the sentence, is replaced by an adverb or noun. He looked like a wolf , possible substitutions: looked wolfish , looked like a wolf .

Where else are commas not needed?

According to the rules of punctuation, commas are not needed before “as” and when it is preceded by adverbs or particles in a sentence:

It's time to finish, it seems like midnight has struck.

“As” is not separated by commas if it is preceded by a negative particle.

He looked at the new gate not like a ram.
So, when you resort to comparisons to decorate or make your text more understandable, remember the insidiousness of the particle “how” and the rules of punctuation, and you will be fine!