Essay, Research Paper: The Importance Of Metaphor In Poetry

It is important to have metaphors in poetry because the reader can then see what the poet
means and feels. A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things that have something in
common. A metaphor helps the writer create a verbal picture that helps the reader to see ideas
more clearly. It helps the writer convey his or feeling more strongly. Typically, a metaphor
asserts that one thing is another or suggests that the one acts like the other in some way.

In the poem, Swan Song, the author calls the mast of the gillnetter a "crazy metronome
cutting the air."� A metronome helps a musician keep exact tempo by the clicking metal arm that
moves back and forth. This helps the reader see how the gillnetter looks in the water. The title of
the poem supports the idea of a repeated metaphor related to music. A swan is known to sing just
before it dies. It is also been said that a swan song is the farewell appearance of a performer who
is retiring. The man on the rock can be seen and understood as the audience, watching the two
fisherman perform their last farewell.

A metaphor has the power to call up impressive visual images. In the poem, T-Bar, the
poet describes the mountain scene by calling it "haemophilic snow."� A haemophilic is a person
who bleeds easy causing them to look pale or white. So the reader now gets a visual picture of
what the mountain looks like. The poet describes the skiers that are riding up the t-bar to
"Somnambulists."� A Somnambulist is a sleepwalker. The poet illustrates the skiers as a bride and
groom. He does this so we verbally see what that would look like.

A metaphor has the power to stir feelings. The Ice-Floes is another poem where the
author uses metaphor. He describes the seal hunters racing across the ice after the baby seals as
travelling with "the speed of hounds on a caribou's track"� By doing this it adds to the intensity of
the situation or to engage our emotions. The author illustrates "the night had swallowed all
signals, the whistle, the flare and the smoke."� The hunters felt that all help was gone or was
swallowed by the night.

In all three poems, the author illustrates to us the use of metaphors. The authors have taken each
poem and given us information with which he compared what was happening with the look of the
surroundings. They are full and rich in information which is needed to fully understand the
experience of what is happening in each poem. Metaphors are often rich in symbols, complex
and full of meaning. They come from the unconscious and describe in full detail that unconscious
experience. They carry information between symbols and the meanings symbols. Each symbols
can be unique to that individual experience as seen here in each poem.