A SIMILE is a handy literary device using the words "like," "as" or "than" to compare two very different objects or ideas. Similes are a great way to create images and add descriptive colour, excitement and interest to poems and stories. Similes help to show rather than simply tell what happened or is happening, and the best ones will "take your reader there!"

Examples:

- His eyes were black as midnight without a moon.
- Lydia made her way up the darkened staircase, her knees shaking like seeds in a shak-shak and her insides like jelly.
- The boy looked hungrier than a lion let loose in Chefette.

In addition to being used to spice up your writing, similes can also become works of art in their own right! Here is an example of extending a simile to add flavour:

- Her beauty never failed to take my breath away, each time I saw her...it was like the bougainvillea in bloom, spilling over the paling of my grandmother’s house, the colour, the delight stopping me in my tracks every morning as I rounded the corner on my way to school.

Here is a poem entitled BARBADOS IS... a collection of shorter similes created by pupils of Infants B2, Welches Primary School in Barbados in November 2013. As part of this group exercise, the pupils (aged 6 and 7 years), got a chance to craft and edit the sentences as well as determine the sequence of the similes.

BARBADOS IS…

talented as Barbie when she sings
sweet as sugar in a jar
loving, like my mummy
bright as a star
kind as me
awesome as a blue racing car
more powerful than Superman
sweet as sugar in my tea
pretty as a sweet girl
sweet as sugar from the sugar factory
beautiful as a flower and pretty as a queen
powerful as Hulk Smash
small as a giant.