Guide to Literary Terms Group

Question:


seb-chan
Student
Community / Jr. College

What is a good metaphor for an element of nature?

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Posted by seb-chan on Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 7:35 PM and tagged with literature, metaphor, nature.

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  1. kc4u Teacher
    College - Senior

    eNotes Editor

    Metaphor is an implicit or indirect analogy as opposed to simile which is direct and explicit in turn. Whenever, we have two terms being compared with each other, there is some sort of a commonality or similarity that grounds the comparison and gives it validity. Now, if this point of similarity is mentioned specifically, it is called a simile. When the point of commonality is not explicitly mentioned on the other hand, it is called a metaphor. For example, the opening line of Wordsworth's poem is "I wandered lonely as a cloud" is the example of simile as the similarity between the speaker and the cloud (loneliness) is mentioned explicitly. If the line had been, "I was a cloud" or something like that, without any mention of the similarity, it would be called a metaphor.

    A good metaphor has a dense nature often and what we have is a very complex, multi-dimensional analogy among three or more objects with multiple commonalities. Such metaphors are called "Mixed Metaphors."

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    Posted by kc4u on Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 10:04 PM