Metaphor

Metaphor: 

The word comes from the Greek mela 'change' and phero 'I bear', and therefore means a transfer of significance. By this figure a word is transferred from the object to which it belongs to another, in such a manner that a comparison is implied, though not formally expressed. When, for example, we speak of a woman as steering the family-affairs, we implicitly compare the woman to a helmsman and transfer the word steering from helmsman to the woman. Let us take another example "Evil thought is the robber of mental peace." Here the metaphor consists in the implied similarity between the robber who robs a man of his goods, and the evil thought which tells upon the mental peace of a man. That is why a metaphor is often called an implied simile.

Examples of Metaphor 

A metaphor may take the form of a noun, an adjective and a verb.

(a) Noun

(1) Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player. 

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, 

And then is heard no more; it is a tale, 

Tell by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

Signifying nothing.

-Shakespeare

(2) The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.

-Gray

(3) He has not a shade of doubt about it.

(4) The lord is my rock and my fortress.

(5) He is now in the sunset of his days. 

(6) The news you bring is a dagger to my heart.

(7) Life seems to be an utterly unimportant by-product.

-Jean

(8) The wish is the father to the thought.

(9) William Pitt was the pillar of the state.

(10) He kindled the light of knowledge.

(11) Sir Philip Sidney was the flower of Knighthood.

(12) I could not see a ray of hope.

(b) Verb

(1) We must learn to bridle our passions.

(2) I will drink life to the lees.

-Tennyson

(3) I drank delight of battle with my peers.

-Tennyson

(4) And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The way to dusty death.

-Shakespeare

(5) A new thought suddenly struck him.

(6) The city was stormed after a long siege.

(7) The speaker was bombarded with questions.

(8) He swam bravely against the stream of popular applause.

(9) I have harboured no malice against him.

(10) He has caught a bad cold.

(11) He cultivated his neighbour's acquaintance.

(12) The boy's efforts were crowned with success.

(c) Adjectives

(1) This is a lame excuse.

(2) He has a stony heart.

(3) Lady Macbeth was a woman of iron firmness.

(4) There was a dead silence.

(5) You have wasted a golden opportunity.

(6) It was a transparent falsehood.

Metaphor and Simile

(a) Metaphor—a compressed simile

A metaphor has rightly been described as a compressed simile. In other words, every simile can be compressed into a metaphor, and every metaphor can be expanded into a simile. For example, "The ship ploughs the sea." (metaphor) can easily be expanded into "As a plough cuts through the ground, so the ship cuts through the water of the sea." (simile). On the other hand, "Не upholds the law just as a pillar holds the buildings," (simile) may be compressed into "He is the pillar of the law" (metaphor).

Some examples of the Expansion of Metaphors into similes:-

1. The camel is the ship of the desert (metaphor).

=The camel crosses the desert as the ship crosses the sea (simile).

2. Variety is the spice of life (metaphor)

=As spice flavours food, so variety makes life pleasant. (simile). 

3. Coming events cast their shadows before (metaphor). 

=As a man who is coming casts his shadows in front of him, so there appears the sign of an event before its happening.

4. Bankim Chandra is the Scott of Bengal (metaphor).

=Bankim Chandra is the greatest historical novelist of Bengal, as Scott is of England (simile).

5. The waves thundered on the shore (metaphor).

=As thunder makes the deafening sound, so the waves breaking on the shore produce the loud sound (simile).

6. Afghanistan is the Switzerland of Asia (metaphor). 

=Afghanistan is a mountainous country in Asia as Switzerland is in Europe (simile).

(b) Difference between Metaphor and Simile. 

A metaphor differs from a simile in form, and not in substance. In a simile the point of resemblance between two different things is clearly stated by means of such words as ‘as’ and ‘like’ while in a metaphor it is simply implied, and not explicitly expressed. "The metaphor is, in effect, a vivid development of the simile. The simile says merely that one thing is like another; the metaphor that one thing is another." (Treble and Vallins.) 

Example—He is like a lion (simile); he is a lion (metaphor).

Constant of Decayed Metaphors:

A metaphor is a common figure of speech. We often use it in our daily speech and scarcely realize when we are using it. There are a large number of metaphors which are so constantly used that their metaphorical character is no longer noticed. Such metaphors are known as constant or decayed metaphors. 

Examples 

To employ means; to pocket an insult; to shut one's eyes to a fault; to carry a matter to extremes; to prosecute studies; to pick a quarrel; to harbour malice; to catch a cold or fever; to play the fool; to cultivate an acquaintance, etc. 

His efforts were crowned with success. 

He triumphed over every difficulty. 

He was overwhelmed with grief. 

He plunged into the business.

Live and Dead Metaphors

In Modern English Usage H. W. Fowler makes an interesting distinction between 'live' and 'dead' metaphors. 'Live' metaphors are offered and accepted with an awareness of their literal sense. On the other hand, dead metaphors have been so often used that the speaker and hearer have ceased to be aware that the words used are not literal. Fowler has given sift and examine as examples. Sift retains some suggestion of its literal sense (‘to pass through a sleve’) in such a phrase as ‘to sift the evidence’ but there is no suggestion of the metaphor in 'to examine the evidence', though the word examine (which is from the Latin examen meaning the tongue of a balance) means literally 'to weigh.' 'Examine then, is dead metaphor, and sift only half-dead or three quarters. (Fowler).

Dangers to be avoided in the use of metaphors:

"Metaphors, skillfully handled, are very effective and add ornament and, what is still more important, clearness and force to writing." (Martin). But they are likely to be abused by young writers. The following are the common errors in the use of metaphor, and they should be avoided. 

(i) Strained Metaphor

By this is meant pursuing the metaphor into irrelevant details. In this type of metaphors, the point of resemblance is far-fetched and forced. Take the following famous passage-

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune:

Omitted, all the voyage of their life,

Is bound in shallows and in the miseries."

"Here we have both impropriety and straining. The tides rise and fall twice every twenty-five hours; it is, therefore, a contradiction to speak of a man's experiencing only one high tide in his life. Used for a lucky or favourable conjuncture, the figure is wholly inappropriate. Then as to the bearing on the voyage of life: to miss a tide is merely half a day's delay in starting." (Bain)

Take another passage-

Young speaking of the old age, says-

"It should

Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore

Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon:

And put good works on board: and wait the wind

The shortly blows us into worlds unknown."

-That feelings suggested in the last two lines are not in keeping with what goes before. "At first, an emotion of deep solemnity is awakened; then the figure changes to the prosaic and calculating operations of a sea-faring enterprise." (Bain)

A strained metaphor is sometimes called an over-elaborate metaphor.

(2) Mixture of Metaphorical and Literal language

We should avoid mixing metaphorical and literal language confusedly together. In other words, we should not write a sen- tence of which one part can be taken metaphorically and another part literally. In the sentence

"- all the voyage of their life.

Is bound in shallows and in miseries." - Shakespeare

-'shallows' is used metaphorically, while 'miseries' only literally.

Another example-

Debapratim came out of the examination with flying colours and very high marks (flying colours used metaphori- cally; high marks used literally).

(3) Confused (or Mixed) Metaphors:

When two or more metaphors come close together in the same sentence, and refer to the same subject, the result is what is called confused (or Mixed) Metaphors. 

Examples-

(a)

I bridle in my struggling muse with pain

That longs to launch into a bolder strain. -Addison

-Here, in the first line the poet compares his muse to a horse and in the second line to a ship and a musical instrument.

(b) To take up arms against the sea of troubles.

-Shakespeare

-The poet here compares the sea in the same breath to the enemy and troubles. Moreover, we never take up arms against the sea.

(c) There is not a single view of human nature which is not sufficient to extinguish de.

- Addison

-Here the expression to extinguish the seeds' is faulty. We extinguish the flame and not the seeds, seeds ground, "Here the writer confuses the idea are picked out of the of extinguishing flame with that of picking seeds out of the ground." (Nesfield)