
Poetstrain Homepage Poetry Forms Handbook: Introduction Glossary of Poetry Terms Meter Iamb Iambic Pentameter Rhyme scheme Couplet Stanza Alliteration Pun Sensory Language Imagery Simile Metaphor Types of Poetry Acrostic Ballad Blank verse Cinquain Diamante Epic poem Free Verse Haiku Limerick Ode Pantoum Quatrain Senryu Shape poetry Sonnet Tanka Villanelle Conclusion Practice: Try Out What You've Learned At The Poetry Forum!	Metaphor Metaphor – Comparing two things without using the words like or as, especially things that are not usually associated together. The poem by Langston Hughes above uses a metaphor in the last line by suggesting that a dream is an explosive. Metaphors describe one thing as if it were another, to show how alike they are, the way Evelyn Tooley Hunt describes mama using words that would also describe a sunrise Another way to clarify a metaphor is by simply saying one thing IS another thing. If it’s a good metaphor, the reader will immediately understand the similarity. Hunt also uses a couple of similes to help maintain an extended metaphor throughout the poem. MAMA IS A SUNRISE When she comes slip-footed through the door, she kindles us like lump coal lighted, and we wake up glowing. She puts a spark even in Papa's eyes and turns out all our darkness When she comes sweet-talking in the room, she warms us like grits and gravy, and we rise up shining. Even at nighttime Mama is a sunrise that promises tomorrow and tomorrow --Evelyn Tooley Hunt Emily Dickinson maintains throughout her poem the metaphor of death as a slow carriage ride with a gentleman named Death. The destination or “House” is a grave (5th stanza). (This poem involves yet another poetic device – personification, in which a non human thing is talked about in a human way, like death is in this poem.) Because I could not stop for Death— He kindly stopped for me— The Carriage held but just Ourselves— And Immortality. We slowly drove—He knew no haste And I had put away My labor and my leisure too, For His Civility— We passed the School, where Children strove At Recess—in the Ring— We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain— We passed the Setting Sun— Or rather—He passed Us— The Dews drew quivering and chill— For only Gossamer, my Gown— My Tippet—only Tulle— We paused before a House that seemed A Swelling of the Ground— The Roof was scarcely visible— The Cornice—in the Ground— Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet Feels shorter than the Day I first surmised the Horses' Heads Were toward Eternity— -- Emily Dickinson Yeats uses metaphor when he compares his words to birds. WHERE MY BOOKS GO ALL the words that I utter, And all the words that I write, Must spread out their wings untiring, And never rest in their flight, Till they come where your sad, sad heart is, And sing to you in the night, Beyond where the waters are moving, Storm-darken'd or starry bright. --W. B. Yeats

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Poetry Forms
Handbook:

forms of poetry book

Introduction

Glossary of Poetry Terms

Meter
Iamb
Iambic Pentameter
Rhyme scheme
Couplet
Stanza
Alliteration
Pun
Sensory Language
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor

Types of Poetry

Acrostic
Ballad
Blank verse
Cinquain
Diamante
Epic poem
Free Verse
Haiku
Limerick
Ode
Pantoum
Quatrain
Senryu
Shape poetry
Sonnet
Tanka
Villanelle

Conclusion

Practice:

Try Out What
You've Learned
At The Poetry Forum!

Metaphor

Metaphor – Comparing two things without using the words like or as, especially things that are not usually associated together. The poem by Langston Hughes above uses a metaphor in the last line by suggesting that a dream is an explosive. Metaphors describe one thing as if it were another, to show how alike they are, the way Evelyn Tooley Hunt describes mama using words that would also describe a sunrise Another way to clarify a metaphor is by simply saying one thing IS another thing. If it’s a good metaphor, the reader will immediately understand the similarity. Hunt also uses a couple of similes to help maintain an extended metaphor throughout the poem.

MAMA IS A SUNRISE
When she comes slip-footed through the door,
she kindles us
like lump coal lighted,
and we wake up glowing.
She puts a spark even in Papa's eyes
and turns out all our darkness
When she comes sweet-talking in the room,
she warms us
like grits and gravy,
and we rise up shining.
Even at nighttime Mama is a sunrise
that promises tomorrow and tomorrow

--Evelyn Tooley Hunt

Emily Dickinson maintains throughout her poem the metaphor of death as a slow carriage ride with a gentleman named Death. The destination or “House” is a grave (5th stanza). (This poem involves yet another poetic device – personification, in which a non human thing is talked about in a human way, like death is in this poem.)

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.

We slowly drove—He knew no haste
And I had put away
My labor and my leisure too,
For His Civility—

We passed the School, where Children strove
At Recess—in the Ring—
We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain—
We passed the Setting Sun—

Or rather—He passed Us—
The Dews drew quivering and chill—
For only Gossamer, my Gown—
My Tippet—only Tulle—

We paused before a House that seemed
A Swelling of the Ground—
The Roof was scarcely visible—
The Cornice—in the Ground—

Since then—'tis Centuries—and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity—

-- Emily Dickinson

Yeats uses metaphor when he compares his words to birds.

WHERE MY BOOKS GO

ALL the words that I utter,
And all the words that I write,
Must spread out their wings untiring,
And never rest in their flight,
Till they come where your sad, sad heart is,
And sing to you in the night,
Beyond where the waters are moving,
Storm-darken'd or starry bright.

--W. B. Yeats