Dabbling in Metaphor

Traditionally, English teachers like to demarcate between similes and metaphors. You can use basically the same definition for both, the simile includes like or as. Metaphor: He scraped me with his claw-tipped hand. Simile: He scraped me with his hand like a claw.

There are sometimes when one is more appropriate to use than the other. One has to feel it out and think it through (the general direction of all good writing).

However, in exploring the metaphor and how it is used in poetry, for example, one must recognize the sliding scale.

If I drew a sun and then asked you to put a literal label under it, you would write the word 'sun'.

If I asked you to put a label under the picture of the sun that reflected how the sun makes you feel, you might put the word 'warm.'

Ah, we see ourselves sliding from the literal to the metaphorical.

Now if we were to put the word 'life' as a label for the sun, we've slid even deeper into the metaphorical.

What if we put the word 'eyeball'? Have we slid too far?

It depends on the context and the thought it conjures. If there is absolutely no connection for the reader, it slips into the ether of non-sequitur.

Literal                                                                                                 Metaphorical

I-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I

sun           warm           energy           gas             life               truth             eyeball