Writing Technique - Metaphors
Metaphors are "figures of speech" where something is represented or compared to by something else otherwise unrelated.
To get more specific, in speech or writing they're a creative way to express or explain the characteristics or actions of something by using the characteristics or actions of something completely different.
Metaphors are regularly used in poems and songs as a sharp way to express to the audience similarities that are not literal, to spark the audience's imagination and paint a mental picture the thing being talked about.
The difference between similes and metaphors is similes use the words "like" and "as" to make comparisons. Notice the different emotional pull each style has.
Examples of Metaphors in Poems and Songs
From Classic Poems
- Emily Dickenson - "Hope Is The Thing with Feathers"
- Sylvia Plath - "An elephant, a ponderous house"
- C.S. Lewis - "Hard light bathed them-a whole nation of eyeless
men"
- William Butler Yeats - "Those great sea-horses bare their teeth and laugh at the dawn"
From Classic Songs
- Alice in Chains - "Them bones are me"
- Patrick Swayze - "She's like the wind" (simile)
- Rascal Flatts - "Life is a highway"
- Switchfoot - "Your love is a song"
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- Jeezy
Updated: April 3, 2020
Are there any other metaphor that stands out to you in a song? Post in the comments below to help others.
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