Extended Metaphors

Extended Metaphors• Extended Metaphor

• Definition: A metaphor that continues over multiple sentences, and that is sometimes extended throughout an entire work.

• Why Writers Use it: Extended metaphors allow writers to draw a larger comparison between two things or ideas. In rhetoric, they allow the audience to visualize a complex idea in a memorable way or tangible. They highlight a comparison in a more intense way than simple metaphors or similes.

• I graduated from the University of Life. All right? I received a degree from the School of Hard Knocks. And our colors were black and blue, baby. I had office hours with the Dean of Bloody Noses. All right? I borrowed my class notes from Professor Knuckle Sandwich and his Teaching Assistant, Ms. Fat Lip Thon Nyun. That’s the kind of school I went to for real, okay? – Will Ferrell, Commencement Address at Harvard University, 2003

What is his extended metaphor? What does he want to the audience to know? Is it effective? Why?

HopeBy Emily Dickenson

Hope is the thing with feathersThat perches in the soul,And sings the tune–without the words,And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;And sore must be the stormThat could abash the little birdThat kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,And on the strangest sea;Yet, never, in extremity,It asked a crumb of me

Short Answer• In the poem _______, by Emily Dickenson, she

(uses/utilizes) an extended metaphor of a _________________ in order to portray to the reader that ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Write a small extended metaphor about how one’s heart can compare to ice/cold abandoned place

• Ex. “Their heart was icy, their blood frosty, their ventricles filled with icicles. Love was frostbitten by their interest.”

Assignment: Write a poem using an extended metaphor based on one of the following topics and pictures or your own (pre-approved) combination. Poem topics:

• Life• Love• Truth• Humiliation• Deception• Secrets• Wisdom• School• Work• Friendship