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Using Metaphors

Aristotle said:

"The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an eye for resemblance." ("De Poetica," 322 B.C.)

So how can you be a genius?

In a metaphor, one thing is likened to another. Vivid metaphors are considered a mark of good writing. Since a metaphor disregards logic -- an object cannot be something else and be itself at the same time -- some consider it "superior" to the simile. (A simile compares two different objects using "as" or "like," thus not defying logic.) Others just consider a simile a type of metaphor -- a simile is explicit, a metaphor is inexplicit. Not that it really matters, what we want to look is the *use* of metaphor to strengthen your writing.

Bear in mind
That death is a drum
Beating for ever
Till the last worms come
To answer its call.
(From "Drum" by Langston Hughes)

No man is an island. -- John Donne

Her face is common property. --From "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter

But good metaphors can become, if they grow to be well known, clichés. (Clichés are "dead metaphors.") Clichés dull your writing. They become almost invisible to the reader. How do you know your metaphor is a cliché? Other than being well read, you can acquaint yourself with lists from a number of books or check Web sites like Cliché Site or Cliché Finder.

Another "bad" metaphor is one that is "mixed." In a mixed metaphor, the parts of the comparison don't match. They can be funny, but you don't want them popping up in your serious writing.

"It's deja vu all over again."
"The flood of students flew out the doors."
"The insult cut her like a knife; it froze her in mid-sentence."

There's also a danger in using metaphor badly and not even realizing we are using metaphors. Jack Lynch, in his "Guide to Grammar and Style" cites this "more or less realistic example of business writing":

We were swamped with a shocking barrage of work, and the extra burden had a clear impact on our workflow.

"Let's count the metaphors," writes Lynch, "we have images of a marsh (swamped), electrocution or striking (shocking), a military assault (barrage), weight (burden), translucency (clear), a physical impression (impact), and a river (flow), all in a mere twenty words. If you can summon up a coherent mental image including all these elements, your imagination's far superior to mine."

Lynch then gives a real example from "The New York Times" (11 June 2001):

Over all, many experts conclude, advanced climate research in the United States is fragmented among an alphabet soup of agencies, strained by inadequate computing power and starved for the basic measurements of real-world conditions that are needed to improve simulations.

Lynch: "Let's see: research is fragmented among soup (among?); it is strained (you can strain soup, I suppose, but I'm unsure how to strain research); and it is starved -- not enough soup, I suppose. Or maybe the soup has been strained too thoroughly, leaving people hungry. I dunno.

The moral of the story: pay attention to the literal meaning of figures of speech and your writing will come alive."

Using metaphors is much more than writing "something is something else." Using a sustained metaphor that is neither over-extended nor mixed can be effective:

We dived into the debate, sank our serrated teeth into their arguments, tore their ideas into bloody shreds, and then swam away to digest our prey.

Use metaphors

As verbs
The song ignited his lust but snuffed out her interest.
As adjectives and adverbs
Her carnivorous brush ate up the canvas in huge bites.
As prepositional phrases
The old man considered the scene with a blue-white vulture's eye.
As appositives or modifiers
On the stairs he stood, a gawking scarecrow.

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