Simile
Appears in 17 songs
“But I howl like a wolf at the moon”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'Like a Wolf at the Moon' as a simile and connects it to the tarot card The Moon, which features a wolf howling. He notes the card can be 'a symbol of error or danger' and can be 'an ominous card.'
The simile connects the speaker's desperate cry to both the tarot card's ominous symbolism and the witchy atmosphere of the bridge.
“I got cursed like Eve got bitten”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies this as 'both an allusion and a simile', 'So I'm like Eve.'
The simile connects the speaker's romantic misfortune to the archetypal fall, placing her personal story in a mythic-theological register.
“Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile, noting the ink pen image suggests she's run out of words to write about this experience. He also connects it to 'last drops of blood', 'she feels like she's bleeding out her life.' Angela confirms by connecting it to TTPD's vinyl poem line 'My veins of pitch black ink.'
The simile captures both creative exhaustion and emotional depletion, tying the speaker's artistic identity to her romantic suffering.
“And I sound like an infant”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile, 'So how does an infant sound? Someone who whines and cries?' Angela adds 'I'm just like having a meltdown.'
The simile marks the speaker's vulnerability and regression, stripped of composure, reduced to inarticulate need.
“And every day is like a battle”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies this as a simile: 'Every day is like a battle, simile.'
The battle simile frames daily life as a struggle, reinforcing the song's juxtaposition between the hardship of daytime and the freedom of nighttime club life.
“We team up, then switch sides like a record changer”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile and calls it his favorite comparative in the piece: 'It's great simile. I mean, I really thought that was... That may be my favorite simile, my favorite comparative in the piece.' He also notes the queer theory implications of 'switching sides like a record.'
The record changer simile captures the fluidity of identity and allegiance central to the new romantic movement, the freedom to flip between sides, styles, and expressions without commitment to one fixed identity.
“But every night with us is like a dream”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as another simile in the chorus, noting it connects to the Eurythmics' 'Sweet Dreams' and the new romantic movement. The dream simile positions nightlife and club culture as the aspirational escape from the battle of daily life.
The dream simile captures the escapist, self-expressive quality of the club scene, the night is where self-expression is free and the new romantics can be themselves.
“The devil that you know Looks now more like an angel”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies 'like an angel' as a simile and notes it as part of the final chorus's shift to simile-based figurative language.
The simile transforms the devil characterization from the earlier choruses into something angelic, enacting the song's redemptive reversal at the level of figurative language.
“Spread my wings like a parachute”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies this as a simile, 'nice simile, right?' He notes that the final chorus shifts from metaphors and allusions to similes, with 'like a parachute' and 'like an angel' marking a different figurative mode. He observes that 'what's different about the chorus here is the use of similes as opposed to metaphors or allusions.'
The shift to simile in the redemptive final chorus mirrors the shift in tone, from the indirect, allusive register of the wise men's pronouncements to the more direct, personal register of the speaker's self-identification as rescuer.
“But somethin' 'bout it felt like home somehow”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this as a simile comparing the relationship to a home, something comfortable and safe.
The simile establishes the warmth and comfort of the relationship's beginning, which contrasts with the coldness that bookends the song.
“Autumn leaves fallin' down like pieces into place”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this as a simile comparing falling autumn leaves to puzzle pieces falling into place. Uncle Jerry notes that the pieces form a picture, connecting to 'I can picture it after all these days', the language links puzzle and picture seamlessly.
The simile creates the illusion of things coming together perfectly while the archetypal autumn setting signals impending loss, a tension between the appearance of order and the reality of decay.
“Leavin' like a father Running like water, I”
Uncle Jerry identifies 'really nice similes' in this passage, leaving like a father, running like water, connecting the running water image to 'that river of memory.'
The similes characterize James's departures through concrete, emotionally loaded comparisons, paternal abandonment and the unstoppable flow of water/memory.
“I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile he loves, 'linger like a tattoo kiss', noting the permanence of a tattoo and connecting the tattoo kiss to red lipstick imagery. He also notes how difficult it is to remove a tattoo, reinforcing the permanence of memory.
The simile captures the central theme of memory's persistence, the relationship's mark on the speaker is permanent and indelible, like a tattoo.
“And there's nothing like a mad woman”
Uncle Jerry explicitly identifies this as a simile: 'So it's a simile, right? Like a mad woman. And so like an angry woman, like an insane woman.' He notes the word 'like' functioning as a preposition in the simile construction.
The simile in the chorus is part of the song's sustained ambiguity about the meaning of 'mad,' with the comparison structure allowing both readings (insane and angry) to coexist.
“You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can't wear anymore”
Angela & Uncle Jerry explicitly identify this as a simile, 'like a wine stained dress.' Uncle Jerry notes it's 'a really nice imagery' and that the simile compares the perfection of a beautiful dress to the ruination of a relationship: 'the dress is ruined. She can't wear that anymore.'
The simile conveys that the relationship, like the stained dress, is permanently ruined and cannot be returned to its former state.
“Thunder like a drum”
Uncle Jerry identifies the thunder/drum comparison within the extended storm metaphor, calling it a simile: 'thunder like a drum simile.'
Part of the sustained storm conceit in the bridge, connecting the natural phenomenon of thunder to the rhythmic beating that transitions to 'this life will beat you up.'
“You'd be picked like a rose?”
Uncle Jerry identifies the simile 'picked like a rose,' noting that the poet chooses rose because roses are beautiful, rare, fragile, cultivated and put on display, and known for their fragrance. He argues the invasiveness of smelling a rose parallels the invasiveness of celebrity, going up and smelling a person.
The simile compresses the dual nature of celebrity into a single image: being chosen (picked) is also being severed from your roots, and the rose's fragility and display mirror the ephemeral, invasive nature of fame.
“Bedroom eyes like a remedy”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile, 'he is a tonic, he is a cure for that' confined environment in which the narrator grew up. The comparison uses 'like' to connect the lover's attractiveness to medicine, suggesting he provides relief from the restrictive upbringing.
The simile frames the lover as medicinal, a cure for the confinement of the narrator's religious upbringing, positioning the relationship as therapeutic rather than merely rebellious.
“Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism Like some kind of congressman?”
Uncle Jerry identifies the congressman comparison as a simile, congresspeople as inherently glad-handing, smiling, hiding the fact that they're real narcissists. She uses the simile to frame her own behavior as politician-like performance.
The simile connects personal self-deception to political performance, broadening the song's critique of public personas beyond celebrity culture to all public life.
“Laughing with my feet in your lap Like you were my closest friend”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile but notes that 'like' can also mean 'like, but not really', they looked like closest friends, seemed like closest friends, but the simile holds open the possibility that they weren't truly that close. He says it could be a simile, but the word 'like' also carries the meaning of resemblance without reality.
The simile introduces doubt into what appears to be an intimate, joyful scene, they resembled closest friends but may not have been, foreshadowing the relationship's superficiality.
“August sipped away like a bottle of wine”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify 'like a bottle of wine' as an explicit simile. Uncle Jerry explores why wine is the chosen vehicle: 'It's the color of blood. It's tasty. It's an inebriant. It makes you relaxed. It makes you more pliant.' He notes that while there are very few comparatives (metaphors and similes) in this song, which is itself notable and 'atypical Taylor', this simile does significant work. Two community readings deepen the simile: a bottle holds a set volume, so the summer sipped away is finite by nature, gone when it is gone; and "sipped" is slow, deliberate, adult drinking, teenagers do not sip wine, so the rememberer stands years from the events she is pouring back out.
The wine simile connects the fading of the month/relationship to the consumption of something intoxicating and pleasurable, something enjoyed in the moment that inevitably runs out.
“The holidays linger like bad perfume”
Angela & Uncle Jerry both highlight this as one of the best lines of the poem. Uncle Jerry discusses the comparison between lingering holidays and bad perfume, noting that everyone has experienced fragrances that sometimes go together and sometimes don't. The simile extends to running from the perfume, from previous flames, and from memories of the old hometown.
The simile captures the inescapable quality of both the holiday season and the memories it brings, they cling to you no matter how far you run, reinforcing the song's theme that you can't go home again but you can't fully escape it either.
“Gave up on me like I was a bad drug”
Uncle Jerry identifies this as a simile, a comparison using 'like.' Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the song is built heavily on comparatives, metaphors, and similes. While technically a simile rather than a metaphor, Uncle Jerry groups it with the song's comparative devices.
The drug simile frames the speaker as something the lover consumed and then rejected, an addiction that was kicked rather than a person who was valued.
“I can read you like a magazine”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this as a simile, 'she can read them like a magazine.' Uncle Jerry then notes the double function: the simile also points to where the public will read about the next love affair, in cheap tabloids and magazines.
The simile does double duty, it characterizes the speaker's shallow assessment of the partner (readable, surface-level) while also pointing to the media landscape that constructs and consumes her public persona.
“Like passing notes in secrecy”
Angela & Uncle Jerry identify this as a simile, Uncle Jerry explicitly names it as such. The playful conversation between the speaker and the stranger is compared to children passing notes in school, conveying the secretive, youthful, and innocent quality of the exchange.
The simile reinforces the speaker's self-awareness about the childish, almost foolish quality of the infatuation, and contributes to the fairy tale innocence of the encounter.