Metaphor
Metaphor is a figure of
speech which makes an implicit, implied or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated but share some
common characteristics. In other words, a resemblance of two contradictory or
different objects is made based on a single or some common characteristics.
In
simple English, when you portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something
else, even though it is not actually
that “something else,” you are speaking metaphorically. “He is the black
sheep of the family” is a metaphor because he is not a sheep and is not even
black. However, we can use this comparison to describe an association of a
black sheep with that person. A black sheep is an unusual animal and typically
stays away from the herd, and the person you are describing shares similar
characteristics.
Furthermore,
a metaphor develops a comparison which is different from a simile i.e. we do not use “like” or
“as” to develop a comparison in a metaphor. It actually makes an implicit or
hidden comparison and not an explicit one.
Common Speech Examples of Metaphors
Most
of us think of a metaphor as a device used in songs or poems only, and that it has
nothing to do with our everyday life. In fact, all of us in our routine life
speak, write and think in metaphors. We cannot avoid them. Metaphors are
sometimes constructed through our common language. They are called conventional
metaphors. Calling a person a “night owl” or an “early bird” or saying “life is
a journey” are common conventional metaphor examples commonly heard and
understood by most of us. Below are some more conventional metaphors we often
hear in our daily life:
- My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too angry.)
- The assignment was a breeze. (This implies that the assignment was not difficult.)
- It is going to be clear skies from now on. (This implies that clear skies are not a threat and life is going to be without hardships)
- The skies of his future began to darken. (Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies that the coming times are going to be hard for him.)
- Her voice is music to his ears. (This implies that her voice makes him feel happy)
Literary Metaphor Examples
Metaphors
are used in all type of literature but not often to the degree they are used in
poetry because poems are meant to communicate complex images and feelings to
the readers and metaphors often state the comparisons most emotively. Here are
some examples of metaphor from famous poems.
Example #1
“She
is all states, and all princes, I.”
John
Donne, a metaphysical poet, was well-known for his abundant use of metaphors
throughout his poetical works. In his well-known work “The Sun Rising,” the
speaker scolds the sun for waking him and his beloved. Among the most evocative
metaphors in literature, he explains “she is all states, and all princes, I.”
This line demonstrates the speaker’s belief that he and his beloved are richer
than all states, kingdoms, and rulers in the entire world because of the love that they share.
Example #2
“Shall
I Compare Thee to a summer’s Day”,
William
Shakespeare was the best exponent of the
use of metaphors. His poetical works and dramas all make wide-ranging use of
metaphors.
“Sonnet 18,”also known as “Shall I
Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day,” is an extended metaphor between the love of the
speaker and the fairness of the summer season. He writes that “thy eternal
summer,” here taken to mean the love of the subject, “shall not fade.”
Example #3
“Before
high-pil’d books, in charact’ry / Hold like rich garners the full-ripened
grain,”
The
great Romantic poet John Keats suffered great losses in his
life – the death of his father in an accident, and of his mother and brother
through tuberculosis.
When
he began displaying signs of tuberculosis himself at the age of 22, he wrote
“When I Have Fears,” a poem rich with metaphors concerning life and death. In
the line “before high-pil’d books, in charact’ry / Hold like rich garners the
full-ripened grain”, he employs a double-metaphor. Writing poetry is implicitly
compared with reaping and sowing, and both these acts represent the emptiness
of a life unfulfilled creatively.
Functions
From
the above arguments, explanations and examples, we can easily infer the
function of metaphors; both in our daily lives and in a piece of literature.
Using appropriate metaphors appeals directly to the senses of listeners or
readers, sharpening their imaginations to comprehend what is being communicated
to them. Moreover, it gives a life-like quality to our conversations and to the
characters of the fiction or poetry. Metaphors are also
ways of thinking, offering the listeners and the readers fresh ways of
examining ideas and viewing the world.
Some people think of metaphors as little more than the sweet
stuff of songs and poems--Love
is a jewel, or a
rose, or a
butterfly. But in
fact all of us speak and write and think in metaphors every day. They can't be
avoided: metaphors are baked right into our language.
Here we'll take a look at a few different kinds of
metaphors, with examples drawn from advertisements, poems, essays, songs, and
TV programs.
As
defined in our glossary, a metaphor
is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison
is made between two different things that actually have something important in
common. The word metaphor
itself is a metaphor, coming from a Greek word meaning to "transfer"
or "carry across." Metaphors "carry" meaning from one word,
image, idea, or situation to
another.
When
Dr. Gregory House (in the TV series House, M.D.) said,
"I'm a night owl, Wilson's an early bird. We're different species,"
he was speaking metaphorically. When Dr. Cuddy replied, "Then move him
into his own cage," she was extending
House's bird metaphor--which he capped off with the remark, "Who'll clean
the droppings from mine?"
Conventional Metaphors
Some
metaphors are so common that we may not even notice that they are metaphors. Take
the familiar metaphor of life as a journey, for example. We find it in
advertising slogans:
- "Life is a journey, travel it well." (United Airlines)
- "Life is a journey. Enjoy the Ride." (Nissan)
- "The journey never stops." (American Express)
- "Life's a journey--travel light" (Hugo Boss Perfume)
Source:
SIMILE
Simile is an explicit
comparison
between two unlike things through the use of connecting words, usually “like”
or “as.” The technique of simile is known as a rhetorical analogy,
as it is a device used for comparison. The other most popular rhetorical
analogy is metaphor,
which shares some traits and is often confused with simile. We explain the
difference in greater detail below.
A simile is a figure of speech in which one
thing is likened to another. This is usually achieved by the use of the word like
or as.
When a poet uses simile, s/he makes it plain to the
readers that s/he is using a conscius comparison. s/he does this by drawing the
reader’s attention to the comparison, s/he does the comparison by using
connectives: likr, as, as though, as if as, as...as, so...as.
Here are some examples of similes:
- I am as poor as a church mouse.
- He is hungry like a wolf.
- She sings like an angel.
Here are some similes by famous people:
- A room without books is like a body without a soul.
(Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BC - 43
BC)
- Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
(Credited to English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello)
- Perhaps too much of everything is as bad as too little.
(American novelist Edna Ferber, 1887-1968)
Here are some funny similes:
- He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
- Duct tape is like the force — it has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together. (Carl Zwanzig)
- Dealing with network executives is like being nibbled to death by ducks. (Eric Sevareid)
- I'm as pure as the driven slush. (Tallulah Bankhead, 1903-1968)
- Her vocabulary was like, yeah, whatever.
