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Thursday, May 17, 2012

Metaphor

Definition: A metaphor is a figure of speech that is used to compare two unlike things as if they were literally comparable without using the words 'like' or 'as'. In poems, this is an especially useful skill that can be used to create imagery.

Example:
 His pride was that of a lion,
Where he stood tall and strong,
His face resembled a stone,
Where no cracks formed,
His will was of steel,
As it never wavered.

Significance: This term is important in poetry to create a deeper meaning to the concept of imagery. Comparing two unlike things is not as easy when you actually try to, and make it meaningful. Most people don't realize that we speak in metaphors as much as we breath.

Extended Metaphor
Definition: The comparison of two unlike things that continues for a series of sentences or lines in a poem.

Example:  
Emily Dickinson's Extended Metaphor: Hope as a "Little Bird"

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

"And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

"I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."
(Emily Dickinson)

Significance:  Being the extended version of a regular metaphor, it offers the same significance as it, except extended to several lines, or even the whole poem.


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