# Metaphors



## PiP (Feb 16, 2016)

Emotions are abstract. One of the challenges I am trying to overcome when writing poetry is the better use of concrete nouns to express abstract words such as happiness, depression or even freedom.

How would you define happiness as a metaphor?


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## Patrick (Feb 16, 2016)

Well, metaphors are what we use to conceptualise abstract ideas. An abstract metaphor would be an oxymoron.

Metaphor is the place where science and literature meet. You have to practice thinking in metaphor to come up with anything worthwhile. I love metaphor; I tend to think in metaphor all day every day. The problem with finding the right metaphor is that you're often looking for one that doesn't express what you really mean. For instance, when you say happiness, happiness doesn't bring anything to mind because happiness is never what you are feeling in isolation. You need to put it in a context. Here's a purposefully overwritten, perhaps even mawkish, example to demonstrate.

A son coming home from the war. The mother is anxious and is insomniac. Her husband has passed and her son is all she has left. She starts early each morning and fills her time with almost-constant locomotion.

It's very early in the morning, and our protagonist is digging through soil with a trowel in squeaking fuliginous gloves. As she pauses to wipe sweat from her brow, bits of soil sticking to her forehead, she sees the uniform at the end of the driveway with a khaki duffle bag slung by its rope over one shoulder. Her heart squeezes, and adrenaline rises like a cloud she can taste at the back of her tongue. Burgeoning on the horizon, seeping over the garden wall in tear-smudged rays, the orient blossom embraces her, embraces him, and in those preternatural arms, she flounders for someone to thank, for someone to lay hold of, but there is only the fury of her heart and him, stolid against the backdrop of a wire fence and overflowing hedge.


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## ShamelessBrute (Feb 17, 2016)

I feel like duke nukem in a strip club
Arnold finding a Cuban Cigar
fat kid in a candy store
a priest being visited by jesus
everything else i got pertains to what makes me happy...aka inappropriate


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## aj47 (Feb 18, 2016)

Well, for starters, the difference between a metaphor and a simile is _is_ vs. _like._

It also depends on your framework and your personal interpretation.  Happiness could be a crescendo of violins, for example, or a cascading fountain of chocolate.


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## Bloggsworth (Feb 18, 2016)

It is very difficult to _force_ a metaphor lest it sounds constructed and therefore ineffective. The best metaphors conjour up an image; not a Joni Mitchell fan personally, but "_The Hissing Of Summer Lawns_" brings images of tea on the lawn in the evening sun, picnics in romantic places. _The buzz of bees_ tells you exactly what you are talking about, _the murmered discourse of bees replete with nectar_ sets a scene for the reader; bees of course don't murmur, they buzz, but it's poetry we are considering, not a school text-book.


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## Scizologic (Feb 19, 2016)

If you like, you can compare to multiple things or similes too. For example:

Justin Bieber is both small as a man, and big as a dick.


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## Robbie (Feb 20, 2016)

I used to love a group called "Nazareth." They had a song that has stuck with me over the years. There are happiness metaphors in the lyrics. I recommend going to You Tube and playing "You Shot Me Down" by Nazareth. I think you will find metaphors for happiness in the song.


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## Greimour (Feb 20, 2016)

All this talk of what a Metaphor is, without giving examples of a metaphor for happiness ^_^

_I will just list stuff I think you might be able to use or work with. I will also list some thing I have in my notebooks. Actually, seeing as I am going that far, I might as well take some from a few sites I visit too...seeing as they are open to the public anyway it shouldn't be a problem.
_
_
First thoughts/ideas that came to mind:_

* Lifting Spirits.
*—Reading the letter lift her spirits. 

* Walking on Air.
*—Since I got accepted into Cambridge, I have been walking on air.

* Lights Up*
—Her eyes lit up as soon as... 


_Words:_
*
Shone
**Bright
Radiant
Light
*
_
Example metaphors of happiness and similarly linked emotions:_

*~ Kisses are the flowers of love in bloom.
~ Laughter is the music of the soul.
*

_Poetic metaphor open to your own interpretation:_

Fame is the fragrance of heroic deeds, 
Of flowers of chivalry and not of weeds!
(from an example site)




Hope this stuff is what you were aiming for.


~Kev.


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## Patrick (Feb 20, 2016)

I advise an intifada against cliche. There's a reason it's difficult to write about happiness in prose or poetry; it's much more productive to come at it obliquely. 

When I recite Byron's "She Walks in Beauty", my spirit is lifted by it, but Byron doesn't tell me his spirit was lifted... and it's an important distinction, I think. You have to tell me what you're really feeling rather than using cliches which scrawl countless tombstones in a thousand wordyards.


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## Glyax (Feb 20, 2016)

A thousand elated butterflies within brought forth a most joyous laugh

If happiness were measured in time, he experienced an eternity as their lips touched

A euphoric rush, comparable to the elated freedom felt by a chick just hatched


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## escorial (Feb 20, 2016)

your idea of the meaning of a metaphor may not cross over to everyone....even abstract words can lead people away from the poets intent but for me this is the thing with words..each one of us interprets things our own way so maybe what you could do is start with the cliches which are valid and see where that takes you...


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## aj47 (Feb 20, 2016)

It is a cliché, however, happiness is a warm blanket.


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## escorial (Feb 20, 2016)

astroannie said:


> It is a cliché, however, happiness is a warm blanket.



happiness is a warm gun.....what a song


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## Aquilo (Feb 20, 2016)

When it comes to metaphors, I always remember being taught about normal and abnormal paradigms. E.g., we burn paper, we burn coal, we burn wood (normal paradigm), but we can't physically burn... time. (Tutor's paraphrase from _Exploring the Language of Poem and Plays_, if I remember.). The one constant is 'burn' but a shift is made into the abstract with the object: instead of wood, paper etc, we burn... time.

When it comes to how that metaphor is processed, readers are familiar with anything being burnt, that the flames can be aggressive, heated, hot, instant, and the jump is then easy to picture how time's being wasted, or used up quickly. So it can come down to using what the reader sees and understand in their everyday lives, and then apply it to the abstract:

Abstract: grief... 
Things a reader knows about grief: tears, salt... what do you with salt? Season things

Metaphor: her seasoned grief

But that's just a basic metaphor and pretty much out of context. I think I'd have to know what the poem was going to be about. You can say happiness, but happiness means different things to different people. So I'd look at what happiness means to the narrator, but use language that a reader can easily picture and apply to their lives.

It's like with handling cliche language in general. I can say someone is pissed off and, like lightning, will rip someone's head off if they're spoken to like that again. Until it's applied to individual character and context, I can't really capture imagery and tone. E.g., looking at my mechanic, who gets pretty pissed off, I'd opt for: 

"Do that again and I'll rip rip off your gear stick and leave you two ball bearings short of a load. And you know how quick I can strip an engine, right?"

*annnnd now looks around, nervous, 'cause she's in the poetry thread*


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## Glyax (Feb 20, 2016)

Aquilo said:


> When it comes to metaphors, I always remember being taught about normal and abnormal paradigms. E.g., we burn paper, we burn coal, we burn wood (normal paradigm), but we can't physically burn... time. (Tutor's paraphrase from _Exploring the Language of Poem and Plays_, if I remember.). The one constant is 'burn' but a shift is made into the abstract with the object: instead of wood, paper etc, we burn... time.
> 
> When it comes to how that metaphor is processed, readers are familiar with anything being burnt, that the flames can be aggressive, heated, hot, instant, and the jump is then easy to picture how time's being wasted, or used up quickly. So it can come down to using what the reader sees and understand in their everyday lives, and then apply it to the abstract:
> 
> ...



Oy, what's wrong with poets


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## ppsage (Feb 20, 2016)

Swimming in warm Guinness.


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## escorial (Feb 20, 2016)

ppsage said:


> Swimming in warm Guinness.



i'll av some of that......


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## EmmaSohan (Feb 20, 2016)

It's long, _I know_, but . . . 


Casor says, "Soolan, I know you do not like to kill. But you had no choice. Truly. You saved many lives today."

It helps me to hear him say this again. I look up at his face. He is trying to be a good husband to me. First promise. I kiss his cheek.

And I remember . . . [from when she is about 12]

"Ruskin, remember yesterday when I cried and you held me and I became like a puddle of melted butter in your arms, and then afterwards I felt _stronger_?"

Ruskin: "I remember."

"How could being melted make me stronger? Puddles are not strong."

Ruskin: "That is just one of the many things I love about you, Soolan. You never stop seeking knowledge."

"I do not seek knowledge, Ruskin. I wish for an _answer_."

A smile tried to sneak out of the right side of his mouth. "Ah, answers. Those are much harder."

And then, while I sat quietly and waited, he thought. I loved seeing how long he could think on an issue. Then he spoke. "When you melted, could you feel my caring for you?"

"I always feel that, Ruskin." But I thought on the issue, as Ruskin had taught me. "You are right! I felt it _more_."

Ruskin: "You are worth my caring, Soolan. Now, pay attention. Can you see how that makes you feel valuable? And feeling valuable gives you strength."

I climbed into his lap, let him hold me, and again melted into a puddle of butter. I felt his caring. Yes! Ruskin was right! He thought I was worth caring for. And that helped me feel valuable, and that helped me feel stronger.​

I feel my head on Casor's shoulder, feel his arms around me, and turn into a puddle of melted butter.


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## LeeC (Feb 20, 2016)

escorial said:


> happiness is a warm gun.....what a song


Clichés are relative to an audience. I used one (to me) in another post that few of you might have heard. "I'm as happy as a badger in a rabbit warren."


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## escorial (Feb 20, 2016)

i often think when one is talking about oneself a euphemism is better than a metaphor but alas LC you can fall into both categories quite easily when describing your life,work.....


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## Aquilo (Feb 21, 2016)

Glyax said:


> Oy, what's wrong with poets



Lol, poets are gorgeous. Now poetry... that scares the life out of me.


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## Patrick (Feb 21, 2016)

LeeC said:


> Clichés are relative to an audience. I used one (to me) in another post that few of you might have heard. "I'm as happy as a badger in a rabbit warren."



I think variations on old cliches are possibly the worst offenders. The only place they don't irritate me is in dialogue, so long as the cliche is something the character would say and isn't forced. My objective when I write is to remove as much dead freight as possible and achieve weight of voice in the narrative. What I find is that cliche in my own writing is just poor craftsmanship and weighs the prose down.

The problem with cliche in poetry is that it draws too much attention to itself. My persistence in removing cliche is that of a bee warring against his own shadow.


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## Darkkin (Feb 21, 2016)

It becomes a case of how the physical properties of known, definable objects mirror and mimic abstract quantifiables of things like emotion and physical sensation.  Patterns, where do the lines cross and how.  Also, consider, many words have more than a single definition, others that have similar spellings, but very different meanings, and a few have identical spellings, but a different pronunciation which alters the meaning.

Consider the word at its most basic level.  Is it a noun, a verb?  Read through its definition(s), consider its synonyms and antonyms.  What images does it conjure, what senses does it engage?  Know where the edge of plausibility is, touch it, and look back at the reasoning that brought you to that point.  Can you make an argument as to why that particular word or turn of phrase works within its given construct?

Obviously, this isn't practical advice if it pertained to prose, you'd never get anywhere in that case, but poetry is more rarefied in the words that make it onto the page and/or screen.  They carry more weight and need to be able to support the structure of their usage and meanings.  Know the facets and the refractions.

I might not get why a shell represents civilization or be able to quantify why a raven is like a writing desk, but I do understand the wrath of a malcontent feline.


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## EmmaSohan (Feb 21, 2016)

_Poetry?_ Sorry, I didn't realize that part. It reminds me of the fieldtrip when I innocently followed my teacher into the men's restroom.

When you say he was as happy as a dog with a new bone, you are relating happiness to something no one has ever experienced -- none of us have been a dog, and we can only imagine what the dog feels like using our own understanding of happiness.

Maybe you have to work the metaphor? She started reading _The Color Purple_. She was a dog with a new bone -- something totally unexpected, momentarily obliterating her boring life; something she could sink her teeth into, contentedly looking forward to hours of pleasure.


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## Radrook (Feb 27, 2016)

I bellow like a wounded bull.
I am a wounded bull that bellows.

Big difference.


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## escorial (Mar 19, 2016)

PiP in orwells essay..why i write he touches on metaphors..to be honest most of it went over my head but you may find it useful


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## zebacarts (May 3, 2016)

Poetry is the best idea to release tension and overcome stress. I love poetry and nature poet.


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