Poetry Hacks

Metaphor

What is it? Where a poem refers to one thing by means of another (e.g. saying a beautiful woman 'is' a rose; or love 'is' a thunderbolt). Metaphors can be implied rather than stated directly (e.g. saying a woman pricked you with her thorns, which implies that she is a rose; or saying that love struck with a blinding flash out of nowhere). What effect does it usually have? Metaphor enables the poet to bring imagery into the text to visualise ideas or feelings; the metaphorical nature or poetic language is arguably its most important feature, since it renders it more so much more colourful, vivid and ambiguous than everyday speech. What else should I look out for? As well as interrogating individual metaphors — asking yourself what they imply about the ideas and feelings being communicated, and the speaker's imagination or state of mind — it is worth analysing the patterns of imagery produced by metaphor, and how metaphor brings ideas or different things in combination with one another.

An example of how it works … ‘Sonnet 2’ by William Shakespeare:

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field

Here the poet implies that time is 'attacking' the beautiful face ('brow') of his beloved by using the diction of war ('besiege', 'trenches', 'field'). The disturbing violence of the metaphor makes an arresting opening for this poem, contrasting with the far gentler flower metaphors of the preceding poem in the set. It also positions the speaker as one who may 'defend' the beloved, and save him by preserving their beauty forever in his timeless art.

Another example … ‘Sonnet 19’ by William Shakespeare:

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