Contributed by Dead
Poet
Updated on
20/5/2006
On
Metaphor
(Taken from Blurbs of Wisdom, modified version)
Essentially, any time you imbue a person, an object, an event, an
ideology / philosophy, or any kind of abstraction with
characteristics other than what they literally have, or have them
perform actions they cannot literally do, you have created a
metaphor. As long as both parts of the comparison are there, in
whole or implied, you have built a pattern in the form of a
metaphor.
When a poet drops a metaphor (or a simile) into a single line of
poetry, most often he is after a single clear point of resemblance
between the two things compared; in such cases, it isn't necessary
that the vehicle (that which is used for comparative purposes) and
the tenor (that which is actually being talked about) correspond in
every detail, and often there is only a single point that is
important.
For instance, when Keats says,
"Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken,"
The only point of similarity he's interested in between an
astronomer's discovering a new planet and his reading Chapman's
Homer is the excitement of discovery; the word "felt" clearly
emphasizes that single point as the important one. Keats makes
nothing of any other potential similarities, e.g., that reading and
astronomical observation are both essentially solitary activities,
nor do they need to be shown or even to exist for the metaphor to
be successful in achieving what it was intended to.
Certainly, it's to the writer's advantage if his metaphor possesses
more than a single dimension for example Pope's couplet
Tis with our judgements as our watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
Here, he makes use of two points of similarity: first, that no two
clocks or watches keep exactly the same time (i. e.,
metaphorically, no two individuals use exactly the same standards
for measuring value); and, second, that each of us relies on his
own watch rather than someone else's (i. e., each of us trusts his
own judgment rather than someone else's). Again, one could find
other points of similarity but Pope doesn't emphasize those in any
way, so that they (or any differences, as well), are unimportant in
context. Usually, as here with Pope, the poet will give us some
degree of guidance as to which correspondences are those we should
pay attention to and, by implication of the unstated, which we
should ignore. Good metaphor should work on many levels, both in
sound and sense. No point using a metaphor for colour when colour
is the only reason you use it.
In each of these cases, the writer begins with an abstract idea,
which he then presents in concrete terms through the metaphor he
has chosen. Basically, the more central to a poem a particular
metaphor is, the greater should be the correspondence between tenor
and vehicle. The metaphor should ad subtext, deeper meaning, new
interpretations, or interesting double entendres. At the very
least, it should work on one primary level of sense and on the
level of sound.
In a
Nutshell
When building a pattern through metaphor, these are the things you
should always keep in mind:
1) What kind of primary connections does the comparison establish?
By primary, I mean what are the first connections that immediately
pop to mind? Invariably, they are usually visual. However, when
building a metaphor, remember we have five senses, and the best
patterns work with more than one of them. If you can make a
comparison that builds visuals as well as taste, touch, smell,
and/or sound, you're off to a good start.
2) What kind of secondary patterns does the metaphor create? By
this I mean, beyond the sensory, what similarities do these two
objects share? What behaviors? What qualities? Do they? If they
don't, then the metaphor is weak.
3) Looking at the primary and secondary patterns you've built with
your metaphor, do they make sense, or have you mixed metaphors?
Have you imbued characteristics into half of your metaphor that it
simply doesn't possess? Did you compare a snake to human
flexibility, and then have the snake dance a jig? A metaphor needs
consistency to work. Otherwise, it's likely you've chosen the wrong
things to compare and build your pattern, or you're not looking
clearly at the qualities each half of your metaphor possesses, but
rather already had a set idea in your head and picked the wrong
metaphor to advance that idea.
4) Last, and most important, do all of these primary, secondary,
even tertiary comparisons add to the theme and intent of your poem?
Do they advance it? Or is it clutter? Look at every possible
similarity in sensory and behavioral connections in your metaphor.
All of the connections between the two things being compared count,
not just the ones you want to count. For example if you compare
tourists to tropical birds because you want to indicate that they
are colourful, restless and noisy, the comparison will
automatically suggest other things - that they are decorative,
harmless, fragile perhaps. Which might be appropriate or it might
not. And you can't assume that they'll have the same ideas as you -
you might be thinking of parrots and toucans and the reader might
think of hummingbirds.
Additional
Note:
A mixed metaphor would be a case of comparing an
object or concept to one thing, then finishing the metaphor with an
action or characteristic unrelated to the initial metaphor. If you
compare your car to a lemon abut then have the lemon fly, youve
got yourself a mixed metaphor.
