Similes are an important tool that makes the language more creative, vivid, descriptive, and entertaining. Similes are used to strengthen descriptions more vividly than if only adjectives or literal descriptions were used. Let us look at the examples from the poem, A Baby Running Barefoot, by D. H. Lawrence.
a) The movements of the baby’s feet are like i) flowers waving in the wind, and ii) puffs of wind passing over water. We can almost see the movement of flowers and the waves on the surface of the water.
b) They are attractive like i) the fluttering of a singing robin, and ii) the beating of the butterflies’ soft little wings. We can almost hear the sounds made by the robin and the butterflies.
c) The touch of the baby’s feet on the poet’s hands is i) cool like syringa flowers in the morning, and ii) firm and soft like young peony flowers. We can almost feel the touch of flowers.