| METAPHORS Metaphor is the most common of the "figures" of speech. It is a comparison that we use without the help of "like" or "as." For example, we may say, "Julie is a gem." We are comparing her to a precious stone. 
There are four kinds of metaphor, varying in the intensity with which we wish our audience to recreate what we are trying to say. | 
| First Level | 
| Third Level | | 
| Second Level | 
| Fourth Level | Think of the "levels" of metaphor as a kind of hierarchy of difficulty, the first level being the type we use most frequently in language. 
Now try your hand at recognizing levels of metaphor. Which of the four levels of metaphor is found in the following bold faced type?
Stefansson: a walrus of a man
whose walk is paced to sled dogs
on the offshore ice.
--from "Stefansson island" by Philip Booth) Click here when you are ready to identify the level of metaphor.
Here is a more difficult level metaphor:
Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.
--from "I taste a liquor never brewed" by Emily Dickinson
Click here when you are ready to identify the level of metaphor.
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