A simile is a figure of speech in which a comparison between two distinctly different things is indicated by the word 'like' or 'as'. A simile is made up of three elements: • the tenor: the subject under discussion;: * the vehicle: what the subject is compared to; • the ground: what the poet believes the tenor and the vehicle have in common. We can therefore analyse the simile life is like a rollercoaster' as follows: vehicle ground it has its ups and downs tenor rollercoaster Ife