Figurative Language: metaphors
What is a metaphor? A metaphor is a direct comparison of two unlike
things. Unlike a simile, a metaphor does not use like or as.
e.g.
No man is an island – John Donne
For ever since that time you went away
I’ve been a rabbit burrowed in the wood – Maurice Sceve
Life is a beach.
Extended Metaphor: a comparison that develops throughout several lines
of poetry
“Metaphor”
by Eve Merriam
Morning is
a new sheet of paper
for you to write on.
Whatever you want to say,
all day,
until night
folds it up
and files it away.
The bright words and the dark words
are gone
until dawn
and a new day to write on.
1. Respond: To what would you compare the morning? Why?
2. (a) Recall: To what does the poet of “Metaphor” compare the morning?
(b) Interpret: In what ways are these two things alike?
3. (a) Recall: What happens when night falls? (b) Infer: What does “files
it away” in line 8 suggest?
4. (a) Recall: What does dawn bring? (b) Interpret: What do you think
the poet means by “bright words and dark words” in line 9?
5. (a) Interpret: What images, words, or actions help the poet carry the
metaphor throughout the entire poem? (b) Evaluate: What makes this
metaphor so effective? (c) Take a position: Do you agree or disagree
with the philosophy expressed in the poem? Explain.
Robert Frost (1874–1963).
The Road Not Taken
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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Respond and Analyze: You must answer in complete sentences to receive
credit!
1. Identify the implied metaphor. What comparison is the speaker making in
the poem?
2. Describe the two paths the speaker must choose from. What types of
decisions do each of these paths represent? Use evidence from the poem
to support your answer.
3. Does the speaker seem satisfied with his decision? What evidence can
you find in the poem to support your answer?