Definition Metaphor Literary Element
It may provide or obscure clarity or identify hidden similarities between two ideas.
Definition metaphor literary element. We stumble into our misery on leaden feet in just these two lines maya angelou has used a metaphor of the dark lantern consonance of the s sounds and personification of misery. However many people don t know the actual names of literary devices so they don t realize these elements when they encounter them in everyday situations. A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things. Metaphors are often compared with other types of figurative language such as antithesis hyperbole metonymy and simile.
The negro speaks of river by langston. The most common literary devices used in literature art and everyday language are similes metaphors personification hyperbole and symbolism. Metaphor definition what is a metaphor. Allegory is a literary and rhetorical device that is essentially a complex extended metaphor.
To employ an allegory an author uses a person thing image or idea that when interpreted expresses hidden symbolic or secondary meaning. The word metaphor is derived from the ancient greek and latin word metaphora which means to carry across or to transfer over a metaphor s purpose is to carry over a common trait between two things. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or an analogy between them. As a literary device metaphor creates implicit comparisons without the express use of like or as metaphor is a means of asserting that two things are identical in comparison rather than just similar.
Metaphors are used to create a deeper understanding of an idea allowing it to be understood in a new way by the reader. Metaphor consonance personification the dark lantern of world sadness has cast its shadow upon the land. Subtypes include allegories hyperboles and parables.