Part 1 of Essay
An epic simile, also known as a Homeric simile, is defined as a simile where A is compared to B, then B is described in such detail that it becomes a digression. John Milton employed this device several times throughout Paradise Lost. The first two books of Paradise Lost are justly celebrated; they also contain almost a ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... Milton decided to abandon the radically figurative style of his early poems -- notably, Lycidas and certain passages of Comus -- which critics like to call Shakespearean (MacCaffrey, 119). Both Homer (the originator of the extended/epic simile) and Milton found it necessary to stop short of the complex metaphors that served the dramatists as instruments for psychological exploration and symbolic statement. Homer’s similes provide a respite from the steady surge of heroic action, and broaden the scope of hi ....