High coloured and edged like the pattern of a fruit tree against a white wall
In the prologue, the writer introduces the way in which memories came back to the old man using a simile. This enhances the reader's perception of the vivid nature of the memories. The old man narrates: "Even the scenes of my far childhood come back to me now sharp and high-coloured and edged with brightness, like the pattern of a fruit tree against a white wall, or banners in sunlight against a sky of storm."
Unroll like pictures
In his emphasis on the way the memories that were coming back to him happened as if they had not happened to him but to another person, perhaps a younger version of himself, the old man compares the way in which the memories unfolded directly to the way a picture unrolls itself. He says: "The colours are brighter than they were, of that I am sure. The memories that come back to me here in the dark are seen with the new young eyes of childhood; they are so far gone from me, with their pain no longer present, that they unroll like pictures of something that happened, not to me, not to the bubble of bone that this memory used to inhabit, but to another Merlin as young and light and free of the air and spring winds as the bird she named me for."
The standing of the trees within the mist like ghosts
After the rain had stopped, the mist engulfs the trees in the forest such that they stood like ghosts. The use of this simile enhances the reader's imagery of the narrator's surroundings, additionally, the grazing horses are said to float like swans: "With the coming of dusk, the rain had stopped, but a mist had risen, creeping knee-high through the trees so that they stood like ghosts and the grazing horse floated like a swan."
Uncle Camlach's fiery nature
In 'The Dove', the narrator explains the day that his Uncle Camlach came home when he was six-years-old. In the description of his appearance, the narrator compares his fiery nature to his grandfather's, a direct comparison which serves the purpose of enhancing imagery in the story. He says, "I remember him well as I first saw him, a tall young man, fiery like my grandfather, with the blue eyes and reddish hair that I thought so beautiful in my mother."
The shining of Lady Niniane's hair
Merlin compares the way in which his mother's hair shone against the color of peat that she was wearing, directly comparing it to corn-silk, "She was wearing a house-robe of dark brown, the colour of peat, and against it, her hair shone like corn-silk."
