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CREATIVITY CHALLENGE 2024.09.08 - Literary Devices
Great writers have always used literary devices to make their work more exciting and appealing. Letâs learn about these devices as we strive to improve our own writing. Weâll start with two well known literary devices:
Metaphor - a figure of speech that compares two things that are not literally the same, but are used to create a comparison or analogy
Simile - a figure of speech that compares two unlike things using the words âlikeâ or âasâ
Our first creativity challenge for the fall is to collect examples of metaphors and similes from great writers. For each example, indicate whether it is a metaphor or a simile, and give credit to the original author.
Here are two examples to get us started:
Metaphor:
âIt is the east, and Juliet is the sun." ~ Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet
Simile:
âHer romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East â ~ J. M. Barrie - Peter Pan
This will be very enjoyable. I would like to use more metaphors and similes in my own writing!
Here is my first example:
Metaphor:
One of my favorite tiny poems is by e. e. cummings, and contains a beautiful set of metaphors :
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds
âThe first week of August hangs at the very top of the summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning.â Simile from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Lovely, Susan! Iâm one of those who are terrified of Ferris wheels, especially when they stop and Iâm at the top. I can feel that same breathlessness and praying for movement - any movement - in the wonderful August simile. Great find. Iâll have to read âTuck Everlastingâ!
O my Luve is like a red, red rose.
A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns
Simile
All the worldâs a stage, and all the men and women merely players.
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Metaphor
Metaphor
âThere are strings in the human heart that better not be vibratedâ
Barnaby Rudge - Charles Dickens
âDialect words - those terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteelâ
The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
Simile
âIt was a turkey! He could never have stood upon his legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em off short in a minute like sticks of sealing waxâ
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
âWhy it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer and practically blank as snowâŚâ
Tess of the Dâurbevilles - Thomas Hardy
Hereâs an excerpt from one of my very favorite poems of all times, The Man Watching, by Rainer Maria Rilke. Iâve included enough of the poem to put the âwrestlersâ into context. The similes are in the last four lines.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlersâ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Simile
Ah, Julian. These are jewels indeed! I know all the authors and most of the works youâve quoted, but donât remember these exact literary moments. Thanks for sharing these.
Iâd like to know more about the context and meaning of the one about âDialect wordsâ. It sounds intriguing!
Lifeâs but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more.
Macbeth by Shakespeare
Metaphor
That is a great example, Margarida.
Shakespeare never fails to inspire us!
The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid nearer the sill of the world.
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Metaphor
âHopeâ is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul.
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.
âHopeâ is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson
Metaphor
To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane in its perfect power. Or the climbing, falling colours of a rainbow.
If growing up is painful for the southern black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Metaphors
Hello everyone,
I reached out last week to the local community college by phone. The person I spoke with, gave me the name and department to correspond with. And so I did.
I composed an informative and inviting email outlining the advantages of writing for voice.clubâs monthly flash fiction contests! Also, I included the option of being a VIP paying member as well.
As of now, Iâve yet to hear back from them. Hopefully, someone in their English Department will offer this to their students!? I think any student interested in writing and this profession, would love this opportunity! The professional feedback that voice.clubâs staff offers, is of such value!
Deborah Goulding
Julie,
Iâve gone to great lengths to read this poem over and over by this author.
There are sites that break down the meaning of each verse/paragraph.
What I havenât found, is your chosen passage of this poem.
Please explain to me in the best of your knowledge, the breakdown of this meaning referring to the âOld Testamentâ.
Thank you.
Hello Deborah -
How special it is to hear from someone who cares enough to research the poem I quoted and ask questions about it. Iâve included the entire poem below, translated from the original German by Robert Bly. There are other translations which might give the poem quite a different meaning. Itâs possible you were reading the translation by Edward Snow or another translator.
I know many people have vastly different interpretations of this poem, as is true for a great deal of literature. I have been studying this poem for over thirty years, and still find new insights. But of course, my interpretations are related to my own life experiences, and might differ from what other people read into the poem.
To me, the overall meaning in this poem is that it is possible - and actually desirable - to have a life that does not depend on âwinningâ. Sometimes losing might be the best way. The Old Testament reference is about people wrestling with something bigger than themselves, and losing. Iâve seen this âwrestlerâ reference in many contexts - psychology, self-help, personal growth. It seems to be a universal theme, not related to any particular religion. I have personally interpreted this as a symbolic reminder to remain humble, realizing that I am very small in a vast and sometimes overpowering world. I am merely human, and donât know many (if any) answers. The best I can do sometimes is try to ask the right questions.
It is so helpful to me to be able to have these kinds of discussions. Not very many people care about some esoteric German poet from another century!! Thanks again for asking, Deborah. I would love to hear your thoughts.
The Man Watching
by Rainer Maria Rilke
I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I canât bear without a friend,
I canât love without a sister.
The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape, like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.
What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great.
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.
When we win itâs with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlersâ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.
Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.
--Translated by Robert Bly
Thank you Julie for your explanation and interpretation. I had read both translations from Robert Bly and Edward Snow.
This is why I had reached out to you. I still was unsure of what that passage had meant.
As many things in life, it is up to the reader to decipher.
I appreciate that you took the time for this question.
Having read this poem several times now, it spoke to me on a deeper level.
Hello Deborah - Youâve taken me back to a very happy time in my life when I spent hours every week with a dear friend who loved Rilke. She introduced me to âA Man Watchingâ and she and I would read his poems aloud to each other, then discuss them, searching for meaning for our own lives. I havenât totally lost touch with her, but sheâs a perpetual âclimate nomadâ now, moving around to avoid the fires and devastating smoke and heat of her southern Oregon home, so we donât get to talk much. Thanks for this reminder of simpler days.
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Bible, John 15, verse 5
Metaphor