The Metaphor

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The Metaphor

A metaphor is the comparison of two unalike things. When an author compares two things and uses words such as "like" or "as", it's a simile. Personification and anthropomorphism's are similar, personification assigns human traits to inanimate objects. For example, "the weather is being nice today". The weather doesn't have any feelings so how can it be "nice"? Anthromorphisms are pretty much the same, but mainly referring to human characteristics being applied to animals or gods. Hyperbole is just when something is exaggerated, like saying your "so hungry you could eat a cow." An analogy is a poetic device used to compare and contrast similar and dissimilar things, for example, "trees are to the environment as water is to a flower."

Robert Herrick uses a bunch of metaphors in "A Meditation for his Mistress" when he says "You are a dainty violet, Yet wither'd ere you can be set Within the virgin's coronet." First, a flower cannot be dainty and withered. Herrick is insinuating that the flower is so perfect to him that it can be both, he doesn't care either way. In fact, this flower is so perfectly imperfect and special that it can be placed on something as sacred as a virgin's attire. Herrick continues this pattern of metaphors throughout the poem individually comparing his mistress to different types of flowers, only to ultimately end with "You are the queen all flowers among; But die you must, fair maid, ere long, As he, the maker of this song." Herrick uses 6 stanzas of in depth similes and personifications in part of a bigger metaphor, that his mistress is the best of all these flowers but will die just like the rest.

From what I've read, Emily Dickinson is easily identified by her quirky and sudden metaphors. For example, in "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?, she says "How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!" I can infer from the title of this poem and this particular stanza, Emily is a private person and is imagining what it would be like to be extroverted and public. She is comparing this to the openness of a frog perched in the middle of receptivity of his bog.

In "The Stone", she once again goes on about how it is to to not give a care in the world about anything. She recites:

"How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn't care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears—
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity—"

Dickinson applies carelessness and happiness to the "unmindfulness" of a stone on a road and labels the sun as independent. These similes are Emily's way of describing how she sees it must feel to have time casually pass by without responsibilities.

In , Dickinson discusses the escape you experience when reading a good book.

"There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any courser like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toil;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!"

The first line is a simile, comparing a book's affect on an author to a 19th century warship (out of all things) that's known for it's protection while cruising through battle but not in open fire. She continues to compare a courser, a huntsmen, to poetry "prancing" on the page, I think this is referring to my imagination. A human soul is not a physical object, so it can't be carried in a chariot, nevermind it being economical either.

Another unconventional example of a metaphor is E E Cummings' "1(a". This poem is the title presented vertically in what visually looks like both the number "1". Other particularities about the image of this poem is the punctuations and letters Cummings decided to isolate within the figure of the poem. Cummings has every two characters in a separate line aside from the word "one" and "iness". This sets the tone for the poem while Cummings' is discussing singularity and oneness and ends the poem with the suffix that represents more then one. The metaphor in this poem is the comparison of the life term of a leaf, how it's grown amongst a lot like it but yet dies subtle and alone. Cleverly, Cummings' portrays this further with his visual presentation of the poem itself.

In conclusion, the approaches to portraying a metaphor within poetry can be direct or subtle. I find it interesting how poets can stimulate your brain in search of a different way and understanding in communicating their own emotions with the reader. Metaphors are commonly used in everyday conversation too, sometimes I don't even notice. I'm always comparing how hungry I am to something outrageous. "I'm so hungry I can eat a cow" is a common one. Metaphors are everywhere!