"The greatest thing by far," said Aristotle in the Poetics (330 BC), "is to have a command of metaphor. This alone cannot be imparted by another; it is the mark of genius, for to make good metaphors implies an eye for resemblance."
From The Heath Guide to Poetry:
The transformation of one thing or idea into another is called metaphor. It is the most powerful figure of speech and very likely the most essential act of poetic intelligence. Metaphor is personal and visionary, requiring no allegiance to facts. A metaphor might seem quite sensible, as when someone says, “My house is a prison,” or it may seem at first bezarre, as when someone says, “My house is a dark road.” But the statements are equally metaphorical. (126)
Here is a metaphor in poetic form:
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers
by Emily Dickinson
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 chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
In the poem, Dickinson suggests that hope, like a bird, is light, consoling, warns us in adversity, and is free of charge, asking nothing of us. (127)
When we think of life as purposeful, we think of it as having destinations and paths toward those destinations, which makes life a journey. We can speak of children as "getting off to a good start" in life and of the aged as being "at the end of the trail." We describe people as "making their way in life." People worry about whether they "are getting anywhere" with their lives, and about "giving their lives some direction." People who "know where they're going in life" are generally admired. In discussing options, one may say "I don't know which path to take."
When Robert Frost says, in "The Road Not Taken"
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference
we typically read him as discussing options for how to live life, and as claiming that he chose to do things differently than most other people do.
This reading comes from our implicit knowledge of the structure of the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. (Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff)
Assignment: The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Choose ONE of the following everyday metaphors and write at least FIVE sentences using the language of the metaphor:
For example:
Time is Money
You're wasting my time.
This gadget will save you hours.
I don't have the time to give you.
How do you spend your time these days.
I've invested a lot of time in her.
1 don't have enough time to spare for that.
You're running out of time.
You need to budget your time.
Is that worth your while?
Do you have much time left?
He's living on I borrowed time.
You don't use your time profitably.
School is a Factory
Argument is War
Football is War
Life is a Battle
Life is a Ladder