Metaphor & Simile

Outline:

A Metaphor is the application of a name or a descriptive term to an object to which it is not literally applicable.Meta means change or transfer.Phero means bear.Metaphor is the bringing together of several points of observation on a particular object and get one commanding image and express it in a complex idea not by analysis but by an abstact statement.A good metaphor implies an instinctive perception of similarity in dissimilarities.A metaphor is an implied Simile.It is the recognition of common charcteristics underling externally dissimilar objects.For e.g camel is the ship of the desert.A ship is in  literal sense a vessel that travels over the sea which is as we know is body of water.A desert is a body of vast sand.The camel crosses the desert as a ship crosses the sea.So the camel by metaphor or transference of meaning is called the ship of the desert.Another e.g. The newas of his death was a thunderbolt to me. Example: life is but a walking shadow. In a metaphor a word which is in literal usage which signifies one kind of thing, quality or action is applied to another in the form of statement of identity instead of comparison the term metaphor, as opposed to a metaphor, is used to include all figures of speech, so the expression, "metaphorically speaking," refers to speaking figuratively rather than literally.

A metaphor takes two things and claims they are the same One way of doing this is by comparing one to another  as in T.S. Elliot’s The love poem of Alfred. J. Prufrock

Let us go then,you and I,

 When the evening is spread out against the sky

Like a patien etherized upon a table t

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,

The muttering retreats

Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels

And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:

Streets that follow like a tedious argument

Of insidious intent

To lead you to an overwhelming question …

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go

Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-

Panes

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one object or idea is applied to another. It could then bring a likeness or comparison between them. Some e.g. of metaphor:

“The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one”. Edward Fitzgerald,

“I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!” Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind"

.”The cherished fields put on their winter robe of purest white” -James Thomson,

While most metaphors are nouns, verbs can be used as well:

      

 Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas,

 Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
 Are each paved with the moon and these.(The Cloud)
                                       --- Percy Bysshe Shelley, ""

A word or expression like "the leg of the table," which originally was a metaphor but which has now been assimilated into common usage, has lost its figurative value; thus, it is called a dead metaphor.According to M.H.Abrams a Mixed metaphor combines two or more diverse metaphors, which leads to absurd effect.Girding up his loins, The chairman ploughed through the mountainous agenda.’

Simile:

Simile comes from Latin term ‘Similes’ which means a thing alike. Simile is a figure of speech in which the comparison between two objects are identified and stated. But in a metaphor it is identified and only implied, not expressly stated. Thus metaphor is a condensed Simile. Both metaphors and similes are comparisons between things which are unlike, but a simile expresses the comparison directly, while a metaphor is an implied comparison that gains emphatic force by its indirect value.

In Simile one person or thing is compared to another. Words such as ‘Like’ and ‘as’ are used to effect the comparison. In Simile both sides of the comparisons are stated. When the word ‘like’, ‘as’ is used, it gives the idea of both objects being compared to each other. It is used to give concreteness to an abstract idea. A simile is a comparison that claims that things being compared as similar, rather than the metaphors claims that things being compared are similar. Look at the words ‘as’ and ‘are’, ‘As’ says something is similar, but ‘Are’ says that it is definitely similar.

 According to M.H.Abrams, Simile is an explicit comparison made between  two essentially unlike things, usually using’ like’ , ‘as’ or’ than’ as in Burns’  ‘O, My love is a red red rose’. Technically speaking he would have used a metaphor. Burns says ’O my love is like a red red rose’. Hence technically speaking he has used a Simile. The Simile in Wordsworth ode, ‘Intimations of immortality’ differs from Burn’s is that it specifies the aspects in which custom is similar to frost (heavy) and to life (deep) ; And custom lie upon thee with a weight, Heavy as frost and deep almost as life.

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Simile A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two essentially unlike things, usually using like, as or than, as in Burns' "O, my luve's like A Red, Red Rose," or Shelley's as in "The Cloud."

A RED, RED ROSE

O, my luve's like a red, red rose,
    That's newly sprung in June.
O, my luve is like the melodie,
    That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
    So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,    

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
    While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,

 And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
    Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

A simile is a comparison between two distinctly different things indicated by the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. A Simile consists in likening one thing to another formally, generally but not always. This contrast is not always expressed by words’ like’, ‘as’ .It must be remembered that things compared must be different in kind as in Keats’

Her red cheeks bloomed with youth,

As rose opens with tender pink.

A simile is a comparison of two unlike things introduced by "like" or "as". For example, Menelaus is compared to a wild beast because of his eagerness to find Paris, who had been rescued by Aphrodite: "Menelaus was wandering through the throng like a wild beast. The basic purpose of this simile from Homer’s ‘Iliad” or any simile is to present a word-picture which will make the reader experience in a more vivid way what is being described. In the above example Menelaus’ movement in search of Paris is brought to life by the picture of a wild beast, which suggests the frantic agitation of a man who has been frustrated in his desire for revenge. The simile is an important feature of Homer's style. He uses both short similes like the one above and extended ones which became a standard feature of the epic tradition after Homer. The first 35 lines of Book 3 contain four extended similes.

Akin to the simile is a figure of speech called a metaphor, a comparison between two different things without the use of "like" or "as". The simile describing Menelaus stated that he was "like a wild beast". That simile could be stated as a metaphor: "Menelaus is a wild beast". This, of course, does not mean that Menelaus is literally a wild beast, but that at this time he shares some characteristics with a wild beast. Metaphors are not as common in the Iliad as similes, but they do occur as in the formulaic phrase, "winged words". Obviously, words do not have wings, birds do. But words do fly out of the mouth like birds, and once they have been said, they are as hard to take back as birds are to capture.