Metaphor

        A metaphor is a comparison of two unlike things. This literary term is broken into seven basic terms which are simile, personification, anthropomorphism, hyperbole, parable, fable, and analogy. Metaphors are mostly used in poems and other writing to describe/compare something or someone. For example, "a fierce person can be referred to as a tiger." A simile is the comparison of two unlike things using like or as. For example, "the water is likes the rain", this is an example of a simile because the water and the sun  have little in common, and yet they're being compared to one another. The "is" is also part of what makes this quote an example of a simile. Personification, makes a thing, idea, or an animal do something only humans can do. For example, "the wind yells while blowing". This is an example of personification because wind can not yell. Only a living thing can yell. Another example, is this poem:

Joy
Just when you thought
that winter
would be here forever,
that it could never end,
you saw:

Amidst the frozen white,

a tiny tip of green,
first blade of grass,
the messenger of spring.

        In this poem "Joy" the author uses a type of metaphor called hyperbole, an exaggeration or overstatement, by saying "just when you thought that winter would be here forever". The part that makes this line a hyperbole is the word forever, this is an exaggeration because a season can not last forever.  In the last stanza lines number eight and nine, the metaphor being used is personification, what is giving human qualities to animals or objects. The way the author shows personification in this poem is by giving the grass a human characteristics as a messenger of the spring.The grass is being personified as a "messenger" the fact that its announcing the ending of winter which is what message's do announce something. But in the this case the grass is a sign of spring.

        Another example of a metaphor is this poem "Peace":

Peace
 The wind is now
a roaring, smashing
monster of destruction,
raking all man's work
from the valleys,
from the vales,
and sends them spinning,
broken flying -

but all of that is
not its core,
its center is in truth
eternal stillness
bright blue skies
and all you hear
are gentle whispers
far away
and unimportant.

        In "Peace" the author uses personification in the last stanza. In this stanza the author compares the wind to gentle whispers. This is personification because only humans whisper.
        They are using similes to compare the elephant to their daily life for example:

the guy who is touching the elephant's tail and saying it is like a disconnected

phone line.   

Dinnertime Chorus 

The teapot sang as the water boiled
The ice cubes cackled in their glass
the teacups chattered to one another.
While the chairs were passing gas
The gravy gurgled merrily
As the oil danced in a pan.
Oh my dinnertime chorus
What a lovely, lovely clan!

        

           In the poem above "Dinnertime Chorus" the author is mainly focusing on personification.  For example, in this line "As the oil danced in a pan", the oil is being personified when the author writes that it danced in the pan. The oil is a liquid substance that is used to cook at times, the author uses dancing to describe the oil on the pan to show its movement in the pan. Another example is the line that states, "the teacups chattered to one another", the teacups are being personified when the author states that they are chattering, make a series of quick high-pitched sounds, teacups can't talk so this makes it personified.

    In the fable " The Goose with the Golden Eggs"  the metaphor that is used in this fable is personification because the message of the fable is "Greed often overreaches itself." the reason that this is a personification is because of the meaning of the word overreaches, making the word greed sound like a humans characteristics. The word overreaches means defeat one's own purpose by trying to do more than is possible, or reach too far. Also, the author is using the word itself to give it more human characteristic.

     

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

        

      In the poem "Hope Is the Thing with Feathers" by Emily Dickinson is also another example that shows a metaphor which is personification because in this line she states that "sings the tune without the words" and "It asked a crumb of me". In these two lines she is giving human characteristics for example the the singing and it asking her something, remind us the hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. This makes this poem personification.

        Another example from Emily Dickinson's poems is this one:

The Bee

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid. 

His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee's experience
 
In the poem"The Bee" has a simile, in the lines "Like trains of cars on tracks of plush, I hear the level bee" she compares the plush of the trains of cars on the tracks by using the word "like" which makes this a simile.

l(a
le
af
fa
ll
s)
one
l
iness 

          In the poem above, "l(a" is a metaphor because of the structure of it makes it show the really meaning of the poem which is loneliness. The leaf falling is the symbol the author uses to show loneliness... l(aleaffalls)oneliness. The reason this is a metaphor is because its an anthropomorphism. The reason that this poem is an anthropomorphism is because the falling leaf is taking the characteristics assumed to belong only to humans, loneliness. 

         Metaphors are literary terms that we use in our daily life style even without noticing. For example, we sometimes use hyperbole, an exaggeration or overstatement, with out noticing. I use hyperbole a lot when I am trying to prove a point that is obvious to someone. Hyperbole is one of the seven terms of metaphors. The other six are: simile, personification, anthropomorphism, parable, fable, and analogy. My life is like a classroom, I always have something new to learn.