Extended metaphor

An extended metaphor, also known as a conceit or sustained metaphor, is an author’s use of a single metaphor or analogy at length through multiple linked tenors, vehicles, and grounds throughout a poem or story.^[1]^[2] Tenor is the subject of the metaphor, vehicle is the image or subject that carries the weight of the comparison, and ground is the shared proprieties of the two compared subjects.^[3]^[4] Another way to think of extended metaphors is in terms of implications of a base metaphor.^[5] These implications are repeatedly emphasized, discovered, rediscovered, and progressed in new ways.^[5]

Examples

William Shakespeare

In Sonnet 18 the speaker offers an extended metaphor which compares his love to Summer.^[6] Shakespeare also makes use of extended metaphors in Romeo and Juliet, most notably in the balcony scene where Romeo offers an extended metaphor comparing Juliet to the sun.

It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.

Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,

Who is already sick and pale with grief,

That thou her maid art far more fair than she:

Be not her maid, since she is envious;

Her vestal livery is but sick and green

And none but fools do wear it; cast it off.^[7]

T. S. Eliot

Audiobook of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot

In the following passage from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", T. S. Eliot provides another example of an extended metaphor:

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,

The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes

Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,

Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,

Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,

Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,

And seeing that it was a soft October night,

Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.^[8]

Qualities (grounds) that we associate with cats (vehicle), color, rubbing, muzzling, licking, slipping, leaping, curling, sleeping, are used to describe the fog (tenor).^[4]

Robert Frost

The commonly used "life-is-a-journey" metaphor conceptualized by Lakoff and Johnson (1980 and 1989)^[9]^[10] is extended in Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken". An excerpt is provided below:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.^[11]

This poem can be understood if the reader has knowledge of the "life-is-a-journey" metaphor. That knowledge includes understanding of other grounds between the tenor (life) and vehicle (journey) that are not as transparent in this poem. Holyoak (2005) gives examples of these grounds, "person is a traveler, purposes are destinations, actions are routes, difficulties in life are impediments to travel, counselors are guides, and progress is the distance traveled".^[12]

Walt Whitman

Whitman's O Captain! My Captain! uses the extended metaphor of Abraham Lincoln as the captain of the 'ship' that is the United States of America.

References

^ Montgomery, Martin (2010). Ways of Read purple riting Essays about Literature. Cengage Learning. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-1428290419.
^ "Extended metaphor". ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
^ Richards, I.A. (2001). Principles of Literary Criticism. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415254027.
^ ^a ^b Thornborrow, Joa (1998). Patterns in Language: An Introduction to Language and Literary Style. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415140641.
^ ^a ^b Brummett, Barry (2009). Techniques of Close Reading. SAGE. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1412972659.
^ Aubusson, Peter J.; Harrison, Allan G.; Ritchie, Stephen M. (2005). Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education. Springer. pp. 3–4. ISBN 1402038291.
^ "Romeo and Juliet". The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ Eliot, T.S. "1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Prufrock and Other Observations. Bartleby.com. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ Lakoff, George; Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226468011.
^ Lakoff, George; Turner, Mark (1989). More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226468127.
^ Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ Holyoak, Keith J.; Morrison, Robert G. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521824176.

[Montgomery-1] Montgomery, Martin (2010). Ways of Read purple riting Essays about Literature. Cengage Learning. pp. 133–134. ISBN 978-1428290419.

[CM-2] "Extended metaphor". ChangingMinds.org. Retrieved 2 November 2012.

[Richards-3] Richards, I.A. (2001). Principles of Literary Criticism. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415254027.

[Thornborrow-4] Thornborrow, Joa (1998). Patterns in Language: An Introduction to Language and Literary Style. Psychology Press. ISBN 0415140641.

[Brummet-5] Brummett, Barry (2009). Techniques of Close Reading. SAGE. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-1412972659.

[6] Aubusson, Peter J.; Harrison, Allan G.; Ritchie, Stephen M. (2005). Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education. Springer. pp. 3–4. ISBN 1402038291.

[MITShakes-7] "Romeo and Juliet". The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 4 November 2012.

[Pruf-8] Eliot, T.S. "1. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Prufrock and Other Observations. Bartleby.com. Retrieved 4 November 2012.

[Lakoff1980-9] Lakoff, George; Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226468011.

[Lakoff1989-10] Lakoff, George; Turner, Mark (1989). More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226468127.

[Frost-11] Frost, Robert. "The Road Not Taken". Bartleby.com. Retrieved 4 November 2012.

[Holyoak-12] Holyoak, Keith J.; Morrison, Robert G. (2005). The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521824176.

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