Simile is the likening of anything to another object of a different class; it is a poetical or imaginative comparison.

A simile, in poetry, should usually he read in a lower key and more rapidly than other parts of the passage—­somewhat as a parenthesis is read.

EXAMPLES. (45)

1.  Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal
   With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form. 
   As when, to warn proud cities, war appears,
   Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush
   To battle in the clouds. 
   Others with vast Typhoean rage more fell,
   Rend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air
   In whirlwind.  Hell scarce holds the wild uproar. 
   As when Alcides felt the envenomed robe, and tore,
   Through pain, up by the roots, Thessialian pines,
   And Lichas from the top of Oeta threw
   Into the Euboic sea.

2.  Each at the head,
   Leveled his deadly aim; their fatal hands
   No second stroke intend; and such a frown
   Each cast at th’ other, as when two black clouds,
   With heaven’s artillery fraught, came rolling on
   Over the Caspian, there stand front to front,
   Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow
   To join the dark encounter, in mid-air: 
   So frowned the mighty combatants.

3.  Then pleased and thankful from the porch they go
   And, but the landlord, none had cause of woe: 
   His cup was vanished; for, in secret guise,
   The younger guest purloined the glittering prize. 
   As one who spies a serpent in his way,
   Glistening and basking in the summer ray,
   Disordered, stops to shun the danger near,
   Then walks with faintness on, and looks with fear,—­
   So seemed the sire, when, far upon the road,
   The shining spoil his wily partner showed.

V. THE VOICE. (46)

Pitch and compass.

The natural pitch of the voice is its keynote, or governing note.  It is that on which the voice usually dwells, and to which it most frequently returns when wearied.  It is also the pitch used in conversation, and the one which a reader or speaker naturally adopts—­when he reads or speaks—­ most easily and agreeably.

The compass of the voice is its range above and below this pitch.  To avoid monotony in reading or speaking, the voice should rise above or fall below this keynote, but always with reference to the sense or character of that which is read or spoken.  The proper natural pitch is that above and below which there is most room for variation.

To strengthen the voice and increase its compass, select a short sentence, repeat it several times in succession in as low a key as the voice can sound naturally; then rise one note higher, and practice on that key, then another, and so on, until the highest pitch of the voice has been reached.  Next, reverse the process, until the lowest pitch has been reached.