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Forums » With Rhyme and Reason » Metaphor and Simile
Author Post
Bitter Irony
Topic: Metaphor and Simile
When does enough become too much? Does EVERY poem need figurative langauge? Your opinions here.

~Bitter Irony

#1 Dec 15th 2006, 5:39pm
Midnight In Eden
Yes.

Every poem does. In poetry you show instead of telling. Poetry is all about the language you use, not so much the emotion you try to portray.

There are millions of amazing ways in which to construct imagery though, so much so that not using it is just being lazy.

#2 Dec 20th 2006, 12:29am
Bitter Irony
Well, obviously all poems need imagery. Much as "The cat sat on the mat" rhymes, it isn't much of a poem. :-) But I'm talking about specifically metaphor and simile. Should the cat be compared to something else? Is the mat actually a metaphor for (insert metaphor here)?

I'm personally biased: I love metaphor and simile. I don't think I can write anything without it (yes, even those dang thank-you notes that crop up around the Holiday season). But sometimes the poetry format just doesn't welcome simile.

~Bitter Irony

#3 Dec 20th 2006, 8:49am
Midnight In Eden
Metaphor is stronger, simile feels a bit too weak occasionally and when overused; well they bring down the tone of the piece I think.

Plus you can use extended metaphor to form a whole piece, whereas a simile is just limited to a few lines really.

#4 Dec 21st 2006, 4:38am
tesa131313
Figurative language can make a poem really beautiful.

But I really enjoy poetry that doesn't

It makes me feel like they are just pouring out your soul and telling you straight out how the writer feels. I guess that would be more of a prose instead of a poem but I really enjoy reading them

#5 Dec 22nd 2006, 7:21am
Persistent Vegetative State
The first poetry in the world was metaphor and simile. That's all poetry ever used to be, and that's all it ever will be. To be fair, it was more simile in the past with the emphasis now shifting over to metaphor (especially with the poem as a whole being a metaphor/ allegory for something else).

Poetry without figurative language isn't poetry--it's technical writing.

#6 Apr 18th 2007, 3:04pm
Persistent Vegetative State
Metaphor is stronger, simile feels a bit too weak occasionally and when overused; well they bring down the tone of the piece I think.

You obviously have never read an epic simile, and quite frankly, I don't think you have any idea what you're talking about. Have you ever read a poem that was written by a recognized poet, to make a statement like that?

#7 Apr 18th 2007, 3:08pm
Midnight In Eden
I have read epic metaphor.

Simile used today by amateur poets is bastardised in such a way as to make me feel sick. Everything is "like" about five simplistic and different things, just never concretely anything.

Quite frankly, I think you don't have to deal with immature idiot poets on a daily basis, I do. Extended simile in competition with extended metaphor can feel weaker. If there is a strong parallel drawn, fantastic, but I am yet to read a (contemporary) poem that capitalises on it well.

Also, do you think Pound's "In the Station of the Metro" would've been better as a simile?

IN A STATION OF THE METRO

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;

Petals on a wet black bough.

Add a "like" before petals and it's nowhere near as potent. Also, if we're going to talk famous poets Milton's "Paradise Lost", Homer's "Iliad" are extremely good examples of epic simile, they ought to be, they're the masters. I'd say that the average poet could not touch that kind of epic simile and as such, make it feel weak and trite.

Then again, what do I know? I'm just a creative writing student who has been forced to read crap poetry every day for the past three years.

#8 Apr 18th 2007, 10:17pm

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