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. ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAAAHYE1Si-lQOe92RP4F8eI1Uyvbmi6gGQLx-nQ-CFoXhscrK1xA.gif) There are four kinds of metaphor, varying in the intensity with which we wish our audience to recreate what we are trying to say. ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwBpAK0FjjpDVqicbJ4UtUmWvY!IZXnVKkVkyaUeKJyuDFCopfbZrQ.gif)
| First Level | ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAAAK0FjjrbTG8wT9e5LslJRJUftfsl2ZWSFnO14NT6h8P8AIkHBQ.gif)
| Third Level | ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAAAK0FjjqJsjPAvPKL20DtECb4Wkp8FlB2OntDedm2pdjVnEvLKQ.gif)
| Second Level | ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAuAK0FjjpteUSyYZYxh5pYZqlW-ZF!-V1TV1G7axBR7IEPKAW6Rg.gif)
| 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. ![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAAAHYE1SiJqkSDs5451r0GLI9KyycpFIgi-XAf1JupuJaekGoMbw.gif) 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.
![](fetch.dll-action=MyPhotos_GetPubPhoto&PhotoID=nFwAAAHYE1Sjghw0po6aaxP2DSVSBxY9W3hHqPKIIAiDsMb7Fu9I6Dw.gif) 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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