Metaphor | Definition & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- Nov 6, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Nov 7
Metaphors are used to create impressive imagery and to express nuances of thought and meaning. They also help transport the reader to the place or scene being described. We also use metaphors in everyday conversation, but typically in such circumstances, they are clichés or dead metaphors. For example:
There is a village at the foot of the mountain.
Getting a new job and moving out of your parents’ house will expand your horizons
Metaphors are most impressive when used in ways that are original, consistent, and reinforce the meaning or point that the author is trying to make. In this article, we examine examples of properly used metaphors and how to recognize bad metaphors, using several examples, including Yeats' "No Second Troy."
What is a metaphor?
A metaphor is a literary device that compares two unrelated things by claiming that one thing is another. A metaphor is made up of two components — A tenor and a vehicle. The tenor refers to the thing that is being described. On the other hand, the vehicle is the thing or idea that describes the tenor.
Let’s look at an example. Yeats, “No Second Troy” (1916):
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Here, Yeats is comparing a woman’s beauty to a tightened bow. In this case, the tenor is the beauty of the woman being praised by Yeats. The vehicle is the “tightened bow.” Let's look at a few more examples of metaphors and the different types.
Examples of metaphors
There are different types of metaphors. A metaphor that uses the words "like" or "as" in the comparison between two things is also called a simile. A metaphor that lasts throughout a poem or several lines in a poem or passage is described as an extended metaphor. An extended metaphor can also be referred to as an analogy.
In the seventeenth century, a group of poets came up with a type of metaphor known as the metaphysical conceit. This is an extended metaphor or analogy where the comparison made is slightly shocking and even "ugly." To learn more about metaphysical conceits, check out this article: What Is a Metaphysical Conceit?
A good example of an analogy would be the earlier Yeats Poem "No Second Troy". Here's the poem in full:
Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great,
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?
The wider analogy in the poem is between a contemporary woman who has spurned Yeats and the legendary Helen of Troy. Helen of Troy was "the face that launched a thousand ships," which is a reference to the Trojan War. Helen has been described simultaneously as the most beautiful woman in the world and the cause of a wretched war that lasted for ten years. The poem then is both praising and condemning the woman in question as a femme fatale, whose beauty leads both men and countries.
The interesting thing about the metaphor used here by Yeats is that it is saved till the end of the poem. We don't understand that the comparison being made is with Helen of Troy until the last line, where the city of Troy is mentioned. This results in a slightly shocking effect.
Our next example is a simile from John Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes" (published in 1819):
1. Keats, "The Eve of St. Agnes" (1819):
St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold:
Numb were the Beadsman's fingers, while he told
His rosary, and while his frosted breath,
Like pious incense from a censer old,
Seem'd taking flight for heaven, without a death,
Past the sweet Virgin's picture, while his prayer he saith.
The poem is a good example of vivid imagery and has been labelled as the coldest stanza in the history of English literature. The metaphor has been highlighted in bold print, and it compares the frosted breath of a monk to "pious incense from a censer old." The metaphor works here with the imagery to give a sense of the cold and isolation of the setting being described by Keats.
Here is an example of an extended metaphor from Walcott.
2. Walcott, “Homecoming: Anse La Raye” (1969):
Whatever else we learned
at school, like solemn Afro-Greeks eager for grades,
of Helen and the shades
of borrowed ancestors,
there are no rites
for those who have returned,
…
only this well-known passage
under the coconuts’ salt-rusted
swords, . . .
the seacrabs’ brittle helmets, and
this barbeque of branches, like the ribs
of sacrificial oxen on scorched sand;
Here, the poet is comparing his return home to the island of Saint Lucia to the homecoming of Odysseus back to Ithaca in Greek mythology. This type of poem with such an exaggerated comparison is called a mock-heroic poem. He begins by making reference to learning about Greek mythology in school on the island by mentioning Helen of Troy. He goes on to compare a rotten coconut branch to the ribs of sacrificed oxen and shells of dead sea crabs to Greek helmets.
The point of the comparison is to highlight the disillusionment between the reality of returning home as a grown man and the romantic ideas of Greek mythology that he grew up on in school. One of the most remarkable examples of extended metaphors would be John Donne’s Holy Sonnet 14.
3. Donne, “Holy Sonnet 14” (1633):
Batter my heart, three-person'd God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv'd, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov'd fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
The poet here is comparing his relationship with God to that of a town besieged by the enemy (Satan), which God has to battle to win over. There is a wider purpose to this metaphor. Donne was a Roman Catholic Christian and an intellectual at the same time. The logic of intellectual thinking is incompatible with Christian concepts such as the virgin birth and the Holy Trinity. It is the opposite of what Donne refers to as "Reason" in Line 7. His faith can only be retained or won by ensuring that his reason is made subordinate to his belief.
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What makes a good metaphor?
A good metaphor has to have a number of qualities to work. 1. It should be striking. 2. It should have internal logic and consistency. 3. It must support the point being made by the writer.
For instance, Yeats’ metaphor— “with beauty like a tightened bow” — works quite well. It is not often a woman’s beauty can be described as a weapon. But it is highly appropriate here. The poet is describing the woman in question to Helen of Troy, who was responsible for a war that destroyed a civilization.
This is a dangerous type of beauty. Another thing about the metaphor is that is consistent. The bow was one of the main weapons used in the Trojan War. It is the weapon responsible for killing the chief hero of the Greeks — Achilles himself. Therefore, it satisfies all three conditions. It is striking, consistent with the wider theme of the poem, and supports the point being made by the poet.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, November 06). Metaphor | Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/metaphor |