Metaphor - examples and images

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Every day any person says a few hundred words. The speech of different people differs depending on education, erudition, communication situation, profession and even mood. Colorful, juicy words involuntarily attract our attention. This is because the speech of such colloquial virtuosos is figurative and rich in metaphors. In simple words, a metaphor can be described as a change in the meaning of a word or expression, the transfer of the meaning of a word to another phenomenon or object. This linguistic property is actively used in speech, sometimes we do not even notice that we are using this or that expression in a figurative sense. What could be such an "erased" metaphor? Examples are quite obvious: the leg of a chair, the head of a nail, bitter disappointment, the neck of a bottle, the sole of a mountain. In these expressions, the figurative meaning has already been lost.

Fiction is all metaphor. Examples from literature, especially poetry, are the most extensive and interesting. Of course, gifted poets do not simply insert a metaphorical word, but consistently develop the image or complicate it by opposing two metaphors.

"Bitter is the honey of your words" by Blok.

"I want dagger words" from Balmont.

Tyutchev, usingpersonification and metaphor, represents winter in the image of an angry and angry woman: “Winter is angry for a reason…”.

Not only Russian poets tend to resort to such methods of revitalizing poetry as a metaphor. Examples from English Poetry. Shakespeare, for example, compared the eyes of a beloved woman to twinkling stars, and Burns wrote of seething, raging blood.

English romantic Wordsworth draws an amazing parallel between human and natural. He compares the daisy to “a modest nun with downcast eyes” and “a queen wearing a ruby crown.”

In literary criticism there is a term author's or individual metaphor. Examples of such a transfer perfectly illustrate the linguistic flair and special penetration into the living world of the poet from the people Sergei Yesenin. That is why it is so difficult to translate Russian authors into European languages. Yesenin's metaphors are truly unique: snow is compared to silver, the cry of a blizzard reminds him of the lingering melodies of a gypsy violin, copper-colored autumn leaves, flying bird cherry is associated with cold snow.

It is no coincidence that it was in the work of Russian poets that the metaphor received a particularly powerful development. The relationship of poets with society and power has always been complex in Russia. This is one of the reasons why we enjoy the intricate beauty and refinement of the images of poetry. Joseph Brodsky through all his lyrics carried the image of moving towards death through a series of suffering and expressed this in a unique way.metaphor about plains and hills. "Death is only plains, life is hills, hills."

Russian folklore is no less colorful, especially the abusive (obscene) metaphor. It is expedient to give examples from folklore, since Russian obscenities do not need examples.

Fate will come, bring your legs together, and tie your hands. Beats like a fish on ice.

Folk poetics accurately marks a brief moment of female youth, which flies like a falcon, whistles like a nightingale, croaks like a black crow.

We can confidently say that the metaphor is an example and confirmation of the deep poetry of the Russian language and its subtle connection with the whole world.