Simile or hyperbole.

[Harry]

Can anyone tell me if the following two lines from a poem represent a simile or hyperbole.

1.) Gathering her brows like gatherin storm.

2.) In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin.

[Tdol]

They're both similes. The second definitely is hyperbole- it seems a fairly accurate description of conventional views of hell. The first might be seen as hyperbole- it depends how angry the person is. On balance, I wouldn't say it was.

[Harry]

Tdol, thanks for the reply. I'm a bit confused though, because I recently read that hyperbole is often confused with a simile or a metaphor because it often compares two objects. The difference is a hyperbole is an exaggeration.

Does this mean then that any phrase must be considered as one or other and cannot be both ?

ie "In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin" has to be either a simile or hyperbole and cannot be described as both a simile and hyperbole?

[Tdol]

A hyperbole can also be a simile, but it depends on the degree of exaggeration. A phrase can be both, and a hyperbole doesn't have to be a simile. If hell really is demons and torture, then the second isn't hyperbole. In my opinion, the second conforms to a fairly standard view off hell and its fires, so I wouldn't call it exaggerated.