How a Metaphor Works
Introduced| English |
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| metaphor/ˈmetəfɔː/ |
Metaphor implies rather than states
- A metaphor 隐喻 implies similarities between two (usually unrelated) concepts or objects in order to reveal or emphasize something about one of them.
- Usually unrelated is the working part: the further apart the two are, the more the comparison does.
- And a metaphor has the same two roles as a simile — main subject and comparison subject.
When a poem calls time a thief, it is asking for interpretation, not a police report.
The differences may be revealing too
- The CED adds something students almost never use: the differences between the two may also be revealing.
- A metaphor claims a likeness, and the reader silently notes where the likeness fails.
- That failure is often the sharpest thing in the poem.
The CED says that in a metaphor, the differences between the two things...
The place where the likeness breaks down is often the sharpest thing in the poem.
Comparisons draw on the reader
- Comparisons draw on the experiences and associations readers already have with those objects and concepts.
- So a metaphor is a transaction with the reader, not a property of the page.
- A comparison to something the reader has no associations with does nothing at all.
Comparisons draw on the experiences and ____ readers already have.
So a metaphor is a transaction with the reader, not a property of the page.
Match each term to its role.
The first two roles are shared with the simile; the third is what makes readings differ.
The differences between the two things may also be revealing. Most answers stop at what the two share. Asking where the likeness breaks down — and whether the poem knows it breaks down — is what separates an adequate reading from a sophisticated one.
Shared, different, or context?
Sort each observation about grief is a country.
The same metaphor in two different poems must mean the same thing.
Interpretation may depend on the context of its use — what is happening decides what transfers.
Context decides what transfers
- Interpretation of a metaphor may depend on the context of its use — what is happening in the text may determine what is transferred.
- The same metaphor in two poems can mean opposite things.
- So never analyse a metaphor from the metaphor alone; read the lines that surround it.
Select all the steps of the metaphor pass.
The third step is where the marks usually are.
A metaphor pass
- Name both subjects. Say what quality the context transfers.
- Then ask where the likeness fails, and whether the poem uses that failure.
- Two answers instead of one, and the second is where the marks usually are.
Grief is a country. Shared: it has borders, and you can be inside it. Different: you can leave a country, and the poem's next line — "no one is issued papers" — reaches for exactly that difference. The failure of the likeness is the point.
A metaphor implies similarities between two usually unrelated things — with a main subject and a comparison subject, as a simile has. The differences may also be revealing. Comparisons draw on readers' existing associations, and context determines what is transferred.