Metaphors in poetry allude to one object or situation using another, serving as a figure of speech and analogy. Aristotle believed analogy was the most important of the four types of metaphor. Kennings are not metaphors as they lack concept. Basic types of metaphors include allegory, catachresis, and parables. Metaphors help explain emotions and qualities, resulting in the association of certain symbols with emotions in everyday life.
The function of metaphor in poetry is to speak of one object or situation by alluding to another. It is used as a means of explanation. It is used as a figure of speech and as a form of analogy. Famous examples of the metaphor in poetry include Sylvia Plath’s “Cut,” Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” and CS Lewis’s “The Country of the Blind.
In ancient Greece, Aristotle believed there were only four kinds of metaphor. Of these four, only analogy is still considered an element of metaphor. The other three are now considered elements of metonymy and synecdoche. Regardless of the other three, Aristotle believed that analogy was the most important of all.
A metaphor is different from a kenning. A kenning is the replacement of a noun by a pair of other nouns alluding to the original noun. For example, the sea is often called the “whale road” in skaldic poetry. The Kennings are not metaphors because they lack circumlocution and concept. The metaphor uses the direct substitution of one thing or notion for another and does not apply “how” or “as” as found in similes.
There are several types of basic metaphors in poetry. First, there’s the allegory, which is an extended metaphor often extended to the length of an entire poem. Secondly there is catachresis, a type of mixed metaphor in which a word is employed with a radically different meaning than originally intended. There are also parables; they’re also a feature film metaphor, but one that’s meant to offer a moral lesson at the end.
A dead metaphor in poetry offers physical action as a metaphor for understanding. Absolute metaphors have distinct meanings that are often hidden within the poem and need to be inferred. Presumptuous metaphors are those in which the extended metaphor first offers a stage, such as ‘the world is but a stage’ and then expands it to include subsidiary metaphors such as ‘and the people in it, its actors’.
Metaphor is important to poetry because it helps explain emotion in other, simpler terms. As Aristotle stated in his “Poetics”, the difference between stories and poems is that poems explain emotions while stories explain events. Metaphors also explain qualities using the same methods.
The use of metaphor in poetry has resulted in the association of certain symbols and qualities or emotions. Love is linked to the heart, while all neuroscientists will say that love comes from the brain. These poetic metaphors have therefore become part of everyday life.
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