Other related topics at:
Literary Topics
850. Poetry; Similes
"A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the
subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view,
and display it to the fancy with greater dignity; but either of
these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it. In didactic
poetry, of which the great purpose is instruction, a simile may
be praised which illustrates, though it does not ennoble; in
heroics, that may be admitted which ennobles, though it does not
illustrate. That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit,
independently of its references, a pleasing image; for a simile
is said to be a short episode."
Johnson: Pope (Lives of the Poets)
Link
1,300. Similes
"A poetical simile is the discovery of likeness between two
actions in their general nature dissimilar, or of causes
terminating by different operations in some resemblance of
effect. But the mention of another like consequence from a like
cause, or of a like performance by a like agency, is not a
simile, but an exemplification. It is not a simile to say that
the Thames waters fields as the Po waters fields; or that as
Hecla vomits flames in Iceland, so Ætna vomits flames in
Sicily. When Horace says of Pindar, that he pours his violence
and rapidity of verse, as a river swoln with rain rushes from the
mountain; or of himself, that his genius wanders in quest of
poetical decorations, as the bee wanders to collect honey; he, in
either case, produces a simile: the mind is impressed with the
resemblance of things generally unlike, as unlike as intellect
and body. But if Pindar had been described as writing with the
copiousness and grandeur of Homer, or Horace had been told that
he reviewed and finished his own poetry with the same care as
Isocrates polished his orations, instead of similitude he would
have exhibited almost identity: he would have given the same
portraits with different names. ... A simile may be compared to
lines converging at a point and is more excellent as the lines
approach from greater distance: an exemplification may be
considered as two parallel lines which run on together without
approximation, never far separated, and never joined."
Johnson: Addison (Lives of the Poets)
Link