Metaphors are used to create impressive imagery and to shed nuances of thought and meaning into new light. They also help transport the reader to the place or scene being described.
Metaphors are used in everyday conversation, but typically in such circumstances, they are cliches or dead metaphors. For example:
There is a village at the foot of the mountain.
Getting a new job and moving out of your parent’s house will expand your horizons
Metaphors are most impressive when used in ways that are original, consistent, and reinforce the meaning or point of the author is trying to say. In this article, we examine examples of properly used metaphors and how to recognize bad metaphors.
What is a metaphor?
A metaphor is a rhetorical device that compares two unrelated things by claiming that one thing is another. A metaphor is made up of two components — A tenor and a vehicle. The tenor refers to the thing that is being described. On the other hand, the vehicle is the thing or idea that describes the tenor.
Let’s look at an example. Yeats, “No Second Troy” (1916):
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Here, Yeats is comparing a woman’s beauty to a tightened bow. Here, the tenor is the beauty of the woman being praised by Yeats. The vehicle is the “tightened bow.”
Examples of metaphors
A metaphor that lasts throughout a poem or several lines in a poem or passage is described as an extended metaphor.
Here is an example from Walcott.
1. Walcott, “Homecoming: Anse La Raye” (1969):
Whatever else we learned
at school, like solemn Afro-Greeks eager for grades,
of Helen and the shades
of borrowed ancestors,
there are no rites
for those who have returned,
…
only this well-known passage
under the coconuts’ salt-rusted
swords, . . .
the seacrabs’ brittle helmets, and
this barbeque of branches, like the ribs
of sacrificial oxen on scorched sand;
Here, the poet is comparing his return to home to the island of Saint Lucia to the homecoming of Odysseus back to Ithaca in Greek mythology. This type of comparison is called mock-heroic.
He begins by making reference to learning about Greek mythology in in highschool in the island by mentioning Helen of Troy. He goes on to compare a rotten coconut branch to the ribs of sacrificed oxen and shells of dead sea crabs to Greek helmets.
The point of the comparison is to highlight the disillusionment between the reality of returning home as a grown man and the romantic ideas of Greek mythology that he grew up on in school.
One of the most remarkable examples of extended metaphors would be John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14.
2. Donne, “Holy Sonnet 14” (1633):
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
The poet here is comparing his relationship with God to that of a town besieged by the enemy (Satan), which God has to battle to win over.
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What makes a good metaphor?
A good metaphor has to have a number of qualities to work. 1. It should be striking. 2. It should have internal logic and consistency. 3. It must support the point being made by the writer.
For instance, Yeats’ metaphor— “with beauty like a tightened bow” — works quite well. It is not often a woman’s beauty can be described as a weapon. But it is highly appropriate here. The poet is describing the woman in question to Helen of Troy, who was responsible for a war that destroyed a civilization.
This is a dangerous type of beauty. Another thing about the metaphor is that is consistent. The bow was one of the main weapons used in the Trojan War. It is the weapon responsible for killing the chief hero of the Greeks — Achilles himself.
Therefore, it satisfies all three conditions. It is striking, consistent with the wider theme of the poem, and supports the point being made by the poet.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, November 06). Metaphor | Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/metaphor |
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