Poetry
Metaphor is one of the most powerful tools at the poet’s disposal, but like all powerful tools it comes with a health warning: carelessly handled, it can seriously damage your poem. Here are some simple tips to help you use it safely. What is metaphor? Metaphor is a figure of speech or writing that enhances our understanding of one thing (the tenor) by identifying it with another (the vehicle). At first sight, that might not seem very helpful: if there’s something we don’t quite understand, how can describing it as something completely different help? The key is in the choice of vehicle. If the poet chooses something that already has meaning for the reader, transferring that meaning to the less well understood subject can bring a sudden flood of insight that could otherwise be achieved only through lengthy explanation. That’s a good thing for two reasons: first, that flash of revelation is a pleasurable experience for the reader; second, a good metaphor ‘says a lot in a little’, and contributes to the condensed quality that distinguishes poetry from prose. Simile is different: it describes one thing as being like another – ‘as white as snow’, ‘as mad as a box of frogs’ – while metaphor identifies one thing directly as another: My life was a stormy sea, and I was adrift in a leaking boat. The directness of metaphor makes it a potentially more powerful tool for the poet, though simile is useful where the parallel between ideas is less complete. So, metaphor provides the poet with a direct route to the reader’s existing store of knowledge and experience. What could possibly go wrong? Unfortunately, there are several pitfalls waiting for the unwary.
Poetry winner this month is Daniel F Crowley with Sea-Talk. Runners up this month are Betty Taylor, Sue Burge and Andrew C Fergsuon. Commendations go to Joanna Campbell, Paul A Freeman and Clare Hawkins. To enter the poetry competition download an entry form here.