Literary Devices: Metaphors

Here’s the Headline: "Add some spice to your writing with metaphor magic."

Short Version: “A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true …” yet helps reveal its true nature.

I’m Jim Lamb—let’s get started.

Virginia Woolf once said, “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” I’ve got a book in front of me. I’m looking right at it—but I can’t see my soul; I can’t even see my face. What did Virginia mean? That’s something upon which we can reflect.

William Shakespeare (“The Bard”) said: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances.” Hey! … Wait a minute. I didn’t get a script … Did you get I script? Where’s my script?

Mother Teresa put it this way: “I'm a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”

Mother Teresa, a pencil? Books, as mirrors? The world, a stage?

Welcome to “The Magical Land of Metaphors” … where nothing is quite what it seems.

Metaphors are everywhere—like dandelions in a field . . . though, technically, “like dandelions in a field” is a simile, but that’s a topic for another time.

Like I said, “Metaphors are everywhere!”

Even presidents use them . . .

On Nov. 21, 1963, the day before he died, President John F. Kennedy dedicated the Aerospace Medical Health Center in San Antonio, TX:

“America has tossed its cap over the wall of space!”

Now, you and I both know that space is not a wall, but Kennedy used that metaphor to illustrate America’s commitment to landing a man on the moon, a promise he’d made just the year before. By the way, we did make it to the moon, 50 years ago, on July 21, 1969. Promise made; promise kept.

Some metaphors are elegant:

Like when Pablo Picasso said, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” (Sigh.)

How about this beautiful remark from Khalil Gibran: “All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.” (Sigh.)

Here’s one of the most famous metaphors of all time: “I am the good shepherd, … and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Jesus said that.

On the other hand, some metaphors are less than elegant—like when Bob Dylan said, “Chaos is a friend of mine.”

Would you like “Chaos” as a friend? Not me. Not even for one day. That’s for sure.

Metaphors can be funny, like when Groucho Marx said: “A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.” … makes me laugh.

Others can be warm and fuzzy: “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust, the French novelist, said that.

Metaphors can also be provocative: “Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.”(Yuk!) George Orwell, author of the infamous “Nineteen Eighty-Four” wrote that disgusting little gem. He also wrote a little book called “Animal Farm” that’s chock-full of metaphors and symbolism—far too many to mention here.

But metaphors are not just for the inteligencia. Everyday guys and gals, ditch-diggers, waitresses, Uber drivers, and even tech service personnel, use them:

For example:

Have you ever been in an uncomfortable conversation where everybody’s ignoring “the elephant in the room”?

Or having to delay going outside because, “It’s raining cats and dogs”?

Or, after losing an argument, you continue to “beat a dead horse.”

What did THAT feel like? Didn’t you know the horse was dead? Couldn’t you see that it was deceased, departed, passed on, gave up the ghost, kicked the bucket, met its maker? Just let it Rest in Peace, OK?

But maybe you’re just a “late bloomer.” Or maybe you’ve gone past the “point of no return.”

Speaking of a “point of no return,” That’s where we’ve just arrived.

Remember … if you didn’t like my metaphoric shtick, “don’t shoot the messenger.” Then you’d be going down a slippery slope—and that would be a dead-end. For sure.

Let me leave you with this thought from Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

I’m Jim Lamb—and you’ve just learned a little somethin’-somethin’ about “Metaphors.”

© 2019 j.s.lamb