Similes and Metaphors

1. Similes and Metaphors By: Brooke, Morgan, and Kristin

2. Terms of Focus • Simile • Metaphor • Tenor: The literal subject that is being compared • Vehicle: The vehicle conveys the comparison (what is being compared?) • *REMEMBER THIS! • Ex; Love is a rose • Vehicle is love and the tenor is the rose

3. Simile • Figure of thought in which one kind of thing is compared to a markedly different object, concept, or experience; the comparison is made explicit by the word “like” or “as”. • Figurative language • Examples: “Jen’s room is like a pig sty.” “I love thee freely, as men strive for right; I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.”

4. Metaphor • A word or phrase that in literal use designates one kind of thing is applied to a conspicuously different object, concept, or experience without asserting an explicit comparison • Figurative language • Example: “Jen’s room is a pig sty.” “sty” is applied to the literal subject room without using like or as

5. Extended Metaphor • A trope that is sustained through several lines, ringing changes on the multiple relevance of the vehicle to the tenor. • Figurative language • Examples: I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, extinct in both Even in their promise, as it is a-making, You must not take for fire.

6. Mixed Metaphor • Occurs when two or more incongruous vehicles are applied to the tenor. • Figurative language • Example “She felt a heavy burden of guilt, but she would not let it engulf her resolve.” “Burden” and “engulf” are the vehicles for the tenor, her guilt.