Rip Van Winkle
by Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle: Similes 1 key example

Definition of Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Similes
Explanation and Analysis—Mountains as Monarchs:

Diedrich Knickerbocker opens his narration by describing the Catskill (or Kaatskill) Mountains, at the foot of which lie Rip Van Winkle's village. Knickerbocker's nature imagery relies on a simile comparing the landscape to a monarch:

When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but sometimes, when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of grey vapours about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.