homework metaphor poem

Homework! Oh, Homework!

Homework! Oh, Homework! I hate you! You stink! I wish I could wash you away in the sink, if only a bomb would explode you to bits. Homework! Oh, homework! You’re giving me fits. I’d rather take baths with a man-eating shark, or wrestle a lion alone in the dark, eat spinach and liver, pet ten porcupines, than tackle the homework, my teacher assigns. Homework! Oh, homework! You’re last on my list, I simply can’t see why you even exist, if you just disappeared it would tickle me pink. Homework! Oh, homework! I hate you! You stink!

 Summary of Homework! Oh, Homework!

Analysis of literary devices used in homework oh, homework.

“Homework! Oh, Homework! I hate you! You stink.”

“I simply can’t see why you even exist, if you just disappeared it would tickle me pink.”

“ Homework! Oh, Homework! I hate you! You stink.”

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Homework! Oh, Homework!

Quotes to be used.

“ You’re last on my list, I simply can’t see why you even exist, if you just disappeared it would tickle me pink.”

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Allen Ginsberg

If I were doing my Laundry I'd wash my dirty Iran I'd throw in my United States, and pour on the Ivory Soap, scrub up Africa, put all the birds and elephants back in the jungle, I'd wash the Amazon river and clean the oily Carib & Gulf of Mexico, Rub that smog off the North Pole, wipe up all the pipelines in Alaska, Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos, Flush that sparkly Cesium out of Love Canal Rinse down the Acid Rain over the Parthenon & Sphinx, Drain the Sludge out of the Mediterranean basin & make it azure again, Put some blueing back into the sky over the Rhine, bleach the little Clouds so snow return white as snow, Cleanse the Hudson Thames & Neckar, Drain the Suds out of Lake Erie Then I'd throw big Asia in one giant Load & wash out the blood & Agent Orange, Dump the whole mess of Russia and China in the wringer, squeeze out the tattletail Gray of U.S. Central American police state, & put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or an Aeon till it came out clean

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25 Metaphors for Homework

Homework – a word that can evoke a wide range of emotions in students, from dread to determination. It’s a crucial aspect of education, a bridge between classroom learning and independent understanding.

However, sometimes it feels like a never-ending struggle. But what if we looked at homework differently? What if we used metaphors to describe it, making it seem less like a chore and more like an adventure?

In this article, we’ll explore various metaphors for homework, each shedding light on a unique aspect of this academic endeavor.

Metaphors for Homework

1. a set of instructions or steps.

Meaning: Homework can be likened to a set of instructions or steps, similar to following a recipe.

In a Sentence: Just as a chef follows a recipe to create a culinary masterpiece, students follow the instructions in their homework to master a subject.

2. A Road to Travel

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a journey or path towards learning and understanding, like traveling down a road.

In a Sentence: Each assignment is a mile marker on the road of education, guiding students on their quest for knowledge.

3. A Fish to Catch

Meaning: Homework can involve trying to “catch” new concepts or ideas, similar to how one might try to catch a fish.

In a Sentence: Students cast their mental nets into the vast sea of information, hoping to catch the elusive understanding hidden beneath the surface.

4. A Ship to Steer

Meaning: Homework can involve navigating your way through new material, similar to steering a ship.

In a Sentence: Just as a captain must navigate through treacherous waters, students steer their way through complex assignments, avoiding pitfalls along the way.

5. A Tool to Use

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a means to an end, like a tool that is used to accomplish a task.

In a Sentence: Homework serves as a versatile tool in the educational toolbox, helping students sharpen their cognitive skills.

6. A Canvas to Paint

Meaning: Homework can be seen as an opportunity to create and express yourself, similar to painting on a canvas.

In a Sentence: Each assignment is a blank canvas where students can brush strokes of their unique understanding, creating a masterpiece of comprehension.

7. A Battle to Fight

Meaning: Homework can sometimes feel like a struggle or a challenge that needs to be overcome, like a battle.

In a Sentence: Armed with knowledge as their sword and determination as their shield, students engage in the intellectual battles of homework.

8. A Journey to Embark On

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a journey of discovery and learning, like embarking on a new adventure.

In a Sentence: Every homework assignment is an exciting expedition into the uncharted territories of knowledge, full of surprises and revelations.

9. A Treasure to Hunt For

Meaning: Homework can involve searching for and uncovering new information or knowledge, similar to hunting for treasure.

In a Sentence: With each assignment, students become modern-day treasure hunters, sifting through information to find the golden nuggets of wisdom hidden within.

10. A Plant to Water

Meaning: Homework can involve nurturing and maintaining your understanding of a subject, similar to watering a plant to keep it healthy.

In a Sentence: Just as a gardener cares for their plants, students must regularly tend to their understanding by completing homework assignments to ensure it grows and flourishes.

11. A Puzzle to Solve

Meaning: Homework can be likened to a puzzle, where students must piece together information and concepts to form a complete picture.

In a Sentence: Each assignment is a puzzle waiting to be solved, with every answer contributing to the bigger picture of understanding.

12. A Marathon to Run

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a long-distance race, where consistency and pacing are key to reaching the finish line successfully.

In a Sentence: Education is not a sprint; it’s a marathon, and homework is a daily training session to build endurance and knowledge.

13. A Symphony to Compose

Meaning: Homework can be compared to composing a symphony, where different elements must harmonize to create a beautiful piece of work.

In a Sentence: Like a composer crafting a symphony, students craft their assignments, ensuring that each part contributes to the overall harmony.

14. A Code to Crack

Meaning: Homework can be like deciphering a complex code, where students work diligently to understand and solve the intricacies of a subject.

In a Sentence: Each assignment presents a code to be cracked, and with perseverance, students unveil the secrets hidden within.

15. A Garden to Cultivate

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a garden to cultivate, where students plant the seeds of knowledge and nurture their growth over time.

In a Sentence: Just as a gardener tends to their plants, students must care for their understanding, allowing it to bloom with each completed assignment.

16. A Map to Follow

Meaning: Homework can be likened to following a map, where each task guides students on a journey through the landscape of learning.

In a Sentence: Each homework assignment is a map, leading students through the terrain of knowledge, helping them explore and navigate.

17. A Story to Write

Meaning: Homework can be compared to writing a story, where students craft narratives of their own understanding and insights.

In a Sentence: With each assignment, students become storytellers, weaving together facts and ideas to create compelling narratives of learning.

18. A Recipe to Master

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a recipe to master, with each step representing a key ingredient in the dish of comprehension.

In a Sentence: Just as a chef perfects a recipe, students perfect their understanding by diligently following the steps of their assignments.

19. A Puzzle to Assemble

Meaning: Homework can be like assembling a jigsaw puzzle, where students fit together the pieces of knowledge to complete the big picture.

In a Sentence: Each homework task is a puzzle piece, and students become expert puzzle solvers, completing the grand educational image.

20. A Building to Construct

Meaning: Homework can be likened to constructing a building, where each assignment contributes to the foundation of knowledge.

In a Sentence: Education is a construction project, and students are the builders, laying each brick of understanding with their homework efforts.

21. A Sculpture to Shape

Meaning: Homework can be compared to sculpting a masterpiece, where students chisel away at their understanding to reveal the beauty of knowledge.

In a Sentence: Each assignment is a block of marble, and students are the sculptors, shaping their comprehension with each refined detail.

22. A Puzzle to Navigate

Meaning: Homework can be like navigating through a labyrinth, where students must find their way through complex concepts and ideas.

In a Sentence: Much like an intrepid explorer in a maze, students navigate the intricate paths of homework assignments, aiming to emerge victorious.

23. A Bridge to Cross

Meaning: Homework can be seen as a bridge connecting what students know to what they need to learn, helping them cross over to a deeper understanding.

In a Sentence: With each assignment, students build bridges of knowledge, enabling them to cross over into uncharted territories of learning.

24. A Puzzle to Piece Together

Meaning: Homework can be likened to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle, where each element represents a crucial part of the overall comprehension.

In a Sentence: Just as puzzle enthusiasts meticulously connect pieces to reveal a picture, students piece together concepts in their assignments to see the complete educational image.

25. A Song to Compose

Meaning: Homework can be compared to composing a musical masterpiece, where students harmonize the notes of knowledge to create beautiful compositions.

In a Sentence: Like composers crafting symphonies, students craft their assignments, ensuring that every element contributes to the melodious tune of understanding.

These metaphors for homework offer a rich tapestry of perspectives, each highlighting a distinct facet of the educational journey. By adopting these metaphors, students can shift their mindset from mere homework completion to engaging in exciting adventures, solving puzzles, composing symphonies, and nurturing gardens of knowledge. Homework becomes not just a task but a canvas for creativity and exploration.

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Summary and Analysis of Homework by Allen Ginsberg: 2022

Introduction to the  poet:.

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet born on 3 rd June, 1926 at Newark, New Jersey, U.S as the son of an English teacher and Russian expatriate . He was one of the leading figures of the  Beat Generation  of the 1950s and the  counterculture that would soon follow. He vigorously opposed  militarism ,  economic materialism  and  sexual repression . One of the most influential writers of his time known as Beat Generation, he exemplified various aspects of the counterculture, such as his views on drugs, hostility to  bureaucracy  and openness to  Eastern religions . He came into the spotlight after the publication of “Howl and Other Poems” in 1956. “Howl” was a poem in the tradition of  Walt Whitman , and a protest of outburst and despair against a destructive, abusive society.The ‘Kaddish’ is one of his purest poem and he soon rose to fame. He undertook non violent protest against everything from Vietnam War to War of Drugs. There had been controversies against his homosexual relationship with many men, specifically his lifelong partner,   Peter Orlovsky . In 1986 Ginsberg was awarded the Golden Wreath by the  Struga Poetry Evenings  International Festival in Macedonia, the second American poet to be so awarded since W. H. Auden. He died surrounded by family and friends in his  East Village  loft in New York City, succumbing to  liver cancer  via complications of  hepatitis , on 5th April, 1997.

The poem “Homework” by Allen Ginsberg is a metaphorical poem speaking about the socio-political background, the economy, the corruption and various issues that surrounded the nations in that period. This poem reflects much upon the poet’s thought and his continuous anti – violent movements. Through his words and the strength of his writing, this poem distinctly reflects on the serious socio-political, economical, environmental, military unrests that the nations were facing.

Setting of Homework:

The poem is set at a period when the poet had been occupied with the Vietnam War. From United Nations to Iran, Africa, Asia were facing issues of corruption, war, sociological, political, military innuendo. The dramatic changes in the international front, the troublesome and disturbing situation that the world was facing were his concern. Though it seems that the poet was doing his laundry at his home, this poem actually concerned about the events of the nations. The poem, in it’s most wonderful form is a critical mockery with an increasingly developed willingness to bring forth goodness among various nations.

Style of Homework:

The poem is written in free verse.

Poetic devices in Homework:

Alliteration : “Rub a dub dub for Rocky Flats and Los Alamos.”  as the author repeats the ‘ub’ sound in “Rub a Dub Dub” is an alliteration used in the poem. Onomatopoeia: “Rub a dub dub” is an onomatopoeia used. Assonance : In the first stanza, “If ….Iran”  as he repeats the vowel I in  “If..I..I’d..Iran” assonance is used as a poetic device . Personification: “..squeeze out …state”  as Ginsberg gives the country a personal trait of being able to tell on other states when people have done wrong. Imagery: “I’d throw in …….in the jungle” as it gives us a visual of him cleaning the country and putting back animals and birds is yet an imagery. Hyperbole : Hyperbole is used repeatedly for exaggeration to indicate the urgency and desperation of situations: “Wash my dirty Iran” “Rub ……North Pole “ “Put the planet in the drier & let it sit 20 minutes or Aeon till it came out clean”. Metaphor: The whole poem acts as a metaphor to awaken our consciousness by stating that the poet wants to cleanse the world like he is doing the laundry in a washing machine.

Summary of Homework:

The poem deals with massive message about the world’s nationwide changes. On the international front, the reforms and issues in the world that had been faced by the nations was the imminent concern of the poem. The poem starts with the poet wishing to wash Iran. The first line itself amazes us with the transformation from the domestic affairs to the national thought. Yet, when we move through the lines we realise it is not only Iran but also the United States  that he wants to clean. He is concerned about the environmental hazards that the generation have been facing. Thus, he wants to regain the environmental counterpoise, the old environmental equilibrium. That is why he says : “put all the birds and elephants back in the jungle,” He also wants to cleanse the phenomenal water bodies that had been subject to pollution. As a matter of fact, all the air pollution, soil pollution and water pollution, he wants to clean them up. Rocky Flats Plant was a former  nuclear weapons  production facility in the  western   United States and Los Alamos is a town in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States that is recognized as the birthplace of the first atomic bomb. The love canal was supposed to be  a short canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers , to provide electricity. However, it became a dumping ground later that exploded after few years . When he mentions these he wants to get rid of these disastrous weapons and the man made events that had been harming the countries for a destruction leading to environmental tragedies taking lives of people, cause births with defects and mis balance the environmental equilibrium, disastrously. The acid rain that destroyed Parthenon’s magnificent marble relief frieze panels, chemically transformed into soft gypsum or dissolved the marvelous structure of Sphinx at Egypt, made of limestone. The blue sky , the white snowy clouds , the clean Mediterranean basin , Thames, Lake Erie are all the wonderful things that the poet wants to recover. The disastrous pollution and the corruption is something the poet wants to get rid of. Agent Orange is an  herbicide  and  defoliant  chemical. It is widely known for its use by the  U.S. military  as part of its  herbicidal warfare  program,  Operation Ranch Hand during the  Vietnam War  . The poet wants to wash out the Agent orange, too, that harmed the people of Vietnam. The following stanzas focus on the way the poet wants to change the nations, their corruptions, the wars that are caused. He wants to put the whole planet ‘in a drier’, this means, he wants to obliterate all the hazards, socio-political issues, wars and bring back harmony and peace in the planet.

Central Idea of Homework:

The central idea of the poem deals with the conveying of a message of political, economical, and military unrest in the international realm. The poet speaks of the worldly hazard that the nations are facing, leading to destruction of nature in the hand of mankind. With the developing era, the age old destruction brought by mankind on Mother Earth is something the human species should be ashamed of. Further, the effort of him desiring to cleanse the world stands as a suitable example of what the mankind must focus on: not his domestic affair but for the betterment of the world, for future generation. The amount of destruction we did is worth mending and not be kept for worse. This poem gives one the magnanimous ideas about the massacre caused by the human, to this remarkable creation, Nature.

Critical Analysis of Homework:

The poem describes how the poet would metaphorically cleanse many problems of the world in a metaphorical washing machine. The poem displays a good deal of humour, and its socio political points are thought provoking. The poem emphasises on the socio-political and environmental problems that the world faces. From cleaning the Amazon or the polluted Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to the effort for maintaining the equilibrium of environment by putting back all the birds and elephants back in the jungle of Africa: the poet is trying to wash the pollution war and violence in the world. Throughout the poem, the various examples suggest that the poet is meaning to strike a chord in our heart making us aware of the ongoing torture that the world is confronting in the hands of mankind. He imbibes a sense in us how we, as humans, must be ashamed of our deeds that has put mother earth in such a devastating bearings. Through his act of cleaning he wants to launder the world and the whole poem stands as a metaphor to awaken us about our misdeeds on Mother Nature.

Tone of Homework:

The tone of the poem is more sincere that it initially seems to be. Though the first line states it is a poem that would be more of a domestic one soon we realise this poem has universal front. The tone from the beginning to the end is light hearted mixed with satires and a great sense of humiliation to the human species for our torture on Mother Earth. It acts as a metaphor for cleansing the world rather than being concerned about one’s domestic affair.

Typical to the style of the Beats Generation, this poem is an ideally unconventional poem pointing out to the world crisis , and stands supreme of the era. Contributor: Bidisha Das  

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Metaphor Homework Poems

These Metaphor Homework poems are examples of Homework poems about Metaphor. These are the best examples of Homework Metaphor poems written by international poets.

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Homework! Oh, Homework!

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A metaphor is used to describe an object, person, situation, or action in a way that helps a reader understand it, without using “like” or “as”.

E.g. E.g. "Her eyes were suns smiling down at me when I woke up" contains a metaphor of the 'eyes' metaphorized as 'suns.'

The comparison is usually not literal and the two things might be vastly different. A few examples include ‘Hope is a thing with feathers’ by Emily Dickinson and  Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath.

Examples of Metaphors in Literature

Example #1 ‘an apple gathering’ by christina rossetti.

A very powerful example of an extended metaphor is available to readers in  ‘An Apple Gathering’ by Christina Rossetti. ‘An Apply Gathering’ is an extended metaphor for the importance of a woman’s perceived purity. Rossetti used an apple tree and the fruit it bears as a symbol for a woman’s virginity.

Take a look at there lines as the speaker recalls discovering that there were no apples growing on her tree:

I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree And wore them all that evening in my hair: Then in due season when I went to see I found no apples there.

While to a casual, uninvested reader this might seem like a simple description of what a female character is doing, to those who want to dig deeper, it is much more meaningful. the use of enjambment in the third line of this section is used as a moment of revelation. The speaker finally understands the implications of what she’s done and how, from now on, her life is going to be quite different.

There is a moving scene later on in the poem in which all the speaker’s peers are appreciating the apples on their individual trees. The speaker though is without a single piece of fruit. She stands out from those around her. They all know that she lost her virginity, as represented by picking her apples too soon.

Metaphors don’t have to control an entire poem though, as they do in  ‘An Apple Gathering’.  They can be short statements that pass almost unnoted within single lines of poetry. Or, they might influence a few lines, and then be passed over for new figurative comparisons or details. When writing poetry, metaphors are one of the key ways that you can expand your verse and relate it to sights, sounds, and experiences that might not come to the average reader’s mind.

Example #2  Classroom  by Dave Calder

This poem provides another great example of the power of metaphor. In ‘Classroom’ Calder uses this technique in order to compare classrooms to “a kind of pet”. Take a look at these lines from the poem:

classrooms are creatures a kind of pet some are naturally sunny others a bit gloomy but it’s how we look after them that makes the difference in how they feel

They express their emotions as pets do, they feel to the onlooker different ways at different times. Just as pets are unable to talk, so aren’t classrooms.

Example #3 Flying Inside Your Own Body  by Margaret Atwood

Atwood suggests in the first lines of ‘Flying Inside Your Own Body’ that one’s “lungs” are “wings” that fill with the ability to fly. They are only part of a larger metaphor comparing the human body to the body of a bird. This phrase speaks to the continuity of life, and a larger connection to non-human nature, especially birds. The comparison between a human body and a bird body continues. The speaker describes a process in which “your bones” become emptied of all material and end up “hollow,” like a bird. Take a look at these lines from the poem:

Your lungs fill & spread themselves, wings of pink blood, and your bones empty themselves and become hollow.

Later on, Atwood uses another metaphor to compare the “joy” one’s heart is made up of to “pure helium”. It has to power to lift you from the ground and into the air.

When you breathe in you’ll lift like a balloon and your heart is light too & huge, beating with pure joy, pure helium.

Just like a bird or a balloon, you take off and metaphorically fly, lifted by joy and freedom.

Example #4 Lady Weeping at the Crossroads by W.H. Auden

There are several examples of metaphors in this complicated, yet beautiful poem. For instance, take a look at the first stanza of the poem:

Lady, weeping at the crossroads, Would you meet your love In the twilight with his greyhounds, And the hawk on his glove?

The first line is a metaphor. He refers to a “crossroads,” one that is mental rather than physical. It speaks to a turning point in one’s life in which there are a number of different directions one has to choose from. She is “weeping,” as if in desperation or confusion. Her symbolic crossroads is only in her mind, it is a state of being. The speaker asks her if she “Would…meet [her] love / In the twilight”.  

Later on in the poem, she encounters various obstacles, all of which he has to overcome in order to “Blow the cobwebs from the mirror / See yourself at last”. The mirror is written about as though it is something physical when in reality it is a metaphor for self-examination. When he looks into the mirror, she needs to, the speaker says, “Put [her] hand behind the wainscot”. This is a panel of wood around the bottom portion of the wall. The speaker tells her, as if consolingly, she has “done [her] part”. Now, all she has left to do is find the “penknife” and “plunge it / Into your false heart”.  She kills the untrue part of herself and therefore able to move on in her life.

She tossed aside falsehoods and ideally, although the poem does not state it, emerged a new person devoid of doubt.  All this is depicted through a series of metaphors depicting a mental journey into the deepest parts of the mind.

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Metaphoric Poems

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Examples of Metaphors in Poems

A metaphor is a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two things that are usually unlike each other, and it replaces the word for one object with that of another. Unlike a simile which is another figure of speech that utilizes “like” or “as”, a metaphor makes the comparison without the use of these two words. You can usually find metaphors in many literary works and even in the lyrics of songs. So it is not that uncommon for you to also encounter metaphors within the world of poetry every now and then.

Examples of Famous Metaphors in Poetry

When reading a poem, they would often have very complex themes that would show to their readers just what kind of views they wish to impart onto the public so that they may see what they have already felt and witnessed. So here are a few examples of metaphors that can be found in some famous poetic lines:

Hope is the thing with feathers That 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 storm That could abash the little bird That 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.”

by Emily Dickinson

I’m a riddle in nine syllables, An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils. O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising. Money’s new-minted in this fat purse. I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf. I’ve eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

by Sylvia Plath

Mother to Son

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floors Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. So, boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps. ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall nowâ” For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

by Langston Hughes.

Sonnet XVIII

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st; So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

by William Shakespeare

Examples of Metaphors in Simple Poems

You do not need to be a literary genius in order to be able to write poems that are filled with metaphors, there are simple ones for you to do as well. Let us show you some examples of poems filled with metaphors that are aimed at children such as:

Childhood Home

Morning is love, when mom bids me arise, Eggs shaped like hearts, a breakfast surprise. The sun barely risen, looks down with a smile, And says, “take your time, just sit for a while.” Tea time is rest, as the light starts to fade. Homework is done and the table is laid. The kettle whistles “You know me, you do.” The saucepan bubbles, “And I know you, too.” Though distance and time have claimed it from me, This home lives within, a memory. My room is a picture which stays in my head – The books in the corner, the cat on the bed. Home is my best friend, my partner, my all, Be it ever so humble, be it ever so small.

I thought it rather strange today, When visiting the zoo, To find the creatures living there, Are just like me and you. So wild and acrobatic, The monkeys in their cage, Delight in swinging high and low, Performers on a stage. Dignified and tall, the penguins on the ice, Waiters in their black and white, Proper and precise. Gazelles turn together, A troupe of graceful, dancing girls, Synchronized and slender, Performing plies, jumps, and twirls. Poor zebras are the prisoners, Condemned for life, you know, Their classic uniform of stripes, Truly marks them so. If I had all day, I’d surely make, Some other metaphors, For sloths, and tigers, elephants, And even dinosaurs.

The Warrior

Each night he walks his kingdom and nods to all he meets, His confident strut, his head held high; he roams through starlit streets. He growls a swift hello, his eyes all aglow, With warrior fire, and burning desire, To be proud Scottish Chieftain. Each night he dreams in 3-D, of dangerous battles galore, Shining swords, flashing daggers, moated castles, and more. His tartan wrapped tight; he enters the fight, He leaps at his foe, but then they laugh low, He is a Chihuahua you see.

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10 of the Best Examples of Metaphors in Poems

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

A simile is a literary device whereby you liken one thing to another, using the word like or as . Sometimes we use similes in everyday language: describing someone as being as sick as a parrot , for instance.

But sometimes a poet finds a simile too weak for their purposes. After all, by likening one thing to another thing using the actual term like (or as ), you’re also acknowledging that the two things are separate and different – otherwise you wouldn’t need to draw them together via the simile.

A metaphor is more direct and does without such weak terms as like or as . Instead of saying someone’s heart is as hard and cold as a stone , you could simply say they have a heart of stone . You can immediately see the difference: a metaphor acts as though the two things are literally the same for literary or rhetorical effect.

1. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 .

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date …

Strictly, this poem gives us an extended metaphor, rather than a simile, because Shakespeare doesn’t use the word ‘like’ or ‘as’. He does, however, begin with a rhetorical flourish which shows he is comparing two things.

In this poem, the most famous of all the Sonnets written by Shakespeare (probably in the early to mid-1590s), the poet likens the addressee of the poem – a young man – to a summer’s day.

Although he begins by signalling that he is making a comparison , by the end of the poem, he has collapsed any distinction between the Fair Youth and the beauty of summer: ‘But thy eternal summer shall not fade …’

2. John Donne, ‘ The Sun Rising ’.

Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be To warm the world, that’s done in warming us. Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.

John Donne (1572-1631) pioneered a new kind of poetry, which would later be branded ‘metaphysical poetry’. Metaphysical poets like Donne didn’t just use metaphors: they took them and stretched them almost to breaking point, developing them over whole stanzas, or even whole poems.

The extended metaphor with which Donne closes ‘The Sun Rising’ – he and his beloved are the whole world because nothing else matters to them as long as they’re in love, so the sun cannot be partnered with the world because Donne and his lover are the world – is unfolded deftly and to great effect. Who hasn’t felt like that when in love?

3. William Blake, ‘ The Sick Rose ’.

O Rose thou art sick. The invisible worm, That flies in the night In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy: And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy.

This short lyric was published in William Blake’s Songs of Experience in 1794. The poem remains a baffling one, with Blake’s precise meaning difficult to ascertain.

How we interpret the meaning of ‘The Sick Rose’ depends largely on how we choose to analyse the poem’s two central metaphors: the rose and the worm. It is possible to see the worm as a symbol of death, given that worms are associated with decay and are commonly said to feed upon the dead (we are ‘food for worms’ in our graves). Roses, meanwhile, often symbolise love, beauty, and the passions.

But the beauty of Blake’s metaphors is that they invite numerous meanings, as we explore in our analysis of the poem (available above via the link to the poem itself).

4. Emily Dickinson, ‘Fame is a Bee’.

Fame is a bee. It has a song— It has a sting— Ah, too, it has a wing.

This brief four-line poem from Dickinson, whose work is filled with arresting metaphors, begins with a simple enough statement. But how is fame ‘a bee’?

The succeeding three lines develop this idea: like a bee, fame has a beautiful song, it can be a transformative and magical experience; but it carries a sting, too, because the famous can so easily find themselves shunned by their former fans; and it can transport us to other places, making ordinary people extraordinary.

5. Christina Rossetti, ‘ Shut Out ’.

The door was shut. I looked between Its iron bars; and saw it lie, My garden, mine, beneath the sky, Pied with all flowers bedewed and green …

This poem’s central image – a garden from which the speaker has been ‘shut out’ – functions as a metaphor for those things which we have lost: things which attain a status which far exceeds their actual value, by virtue of being lost. We want the things we cannot have, and – equally – we long to regain the things which have been taken from us

6. Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘ The Windhover ’.

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king- dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding High there …

In this joyous sonnet from one of Victorian poetry’s greatest innovators, the Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-89) offers us numerous metaphors for the windhover (that is, the kestrel) in flight: the ‘minion’ of morning, the ‘dauphin’ or prince of the kingdom of daylight, a horseman or chevalier, and even, ultimately, Jesus Christ.

7. H. D., ‘ Oread ’.

The imagists, a short-lived Anglo-American movement which flourished in London around the time of the First World War, loved metaphors, because they believed in directness of expression and put the image at the heart of their poetry.

In this brief poem, H. D. takes metaphor a stage further , by bringing two things together – the trees and the ocean – so completely that they effectively change places. Is the oread (mountain nymph) calling for the ‘sea’ of pine trees to ‘wash’ over her rocks, or is she calling for the pine-coloured (literal) sea to splash over the mountains?

This poem enacts something which H. D.’s fellow imagist Ezra Pound called superposition , where one image is laid over another.

8. Ted Hughes, ‘ The Thought-Fox ’.

This is one of the most famous poems by Ted Hughes (1930-98). It is also one of the most famous poetic accounts of the act of writing poetry, or rather, more accurately, trying to write poetry and the arrival of inspiration.

Hughes uses the fox as a metaphor for the arrival of such poetic inspiration: the creature appears inside the poet’s imagination with its ‘sudden sharp hot stink’, and its pawprints across the snow enable the poem’s words to be ‘printed’ across the page.

9. Sylvia Plath, ‘ Metaphors ’.

Given the focus of this post is examples of metaphors in poetry, the inclusion of a poem called ‘Metaphors’ seems appropriate enough. Plath (1932-63) often wrote about motherhood, and ‘Metaphors’ is an almost meta-poetic exploration of pregnancy and the poet’s quest to capture this experience through metaphor, that stock-in-trade of poetic language.

Some of the metaphors are more logical and easily suggested than others, such as the loaf of bread rising like an expectant mother’s belly. Others, like the coin-purse filled with new-minted money, are perhaps more surprising.

10. Audre Lorde, ‘ Coal ’.

‘Coal’ is a 1968 poem by the African-American poet Audre Lorde (1934-92). Lorde was a self-described ‘Black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.’

In this cleverly constructed poem, coal is a metaphor for blackness (or Blackness: Lorde moves from the lower-case ‘black’ of the coal to the capitalised identity, ‘I am Black’, between the beginning and end of the poem). But carbon, which makes coal, also creates diamond if enough pressure is applied.

From this central metaphor, Lorde develops other images : the metaphor of diamond on window panes summons the power of writing, for instance (‘cutting’ words, at that: diamond is hard enough to score the surface of glass). A poem that is almost metaphysical in its use of metaphor, linked to the Civil Rights movement.

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Homework Stew

From the book When the Teacher Isn't Looking

I turned the flame up nice and hot and tossed my binder in the pot. I sprinkled in my book report with colored markers by the quart.

Despite its putrid , noxious gas, I proudly took my stew to class. And though the smell was so grotesque , I set it on my teacher’s desk.

My teacher said, “You’re quite a chef. But, still, you’re going to get an F. I didn’t ask for ‘homework stew,’ I said, ‘Tomorrow, homework’s due.'”

 — Kenn Nesbitt

Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Reading Level: Grade 5 Topics: Food Poems , School Poems Poetic Techniques: Imagery , Narrative Poems Word Count: 111

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• Simile and Metaphor Worksheets

Similes and metaphors are related figurative language techniques . Both similes and metaphors draw comparisons between two or more things; however, there are some key differences between them. Similes always use the word like or the word as to make the comparison. Metaphors do not use the word like or as . Consequently, metaphors can be more implicit and harder to identify.

This is an example of a metaphor. The speaker is comparing her eyes to heaven, but this is not done explicitly. The comparison is implied. Here is the same example but turned into a simile.

This is an example of a simile. In this one the comparison is more explicit. It is easier to identify that the speaker is making a comparison.

The worksheets and activities on this page will give students laser focused practice (implicit metaphor BTW) to help them become simile and metaphor experts. These worksheets are available in a variety of formats: PDF files for printing exactly as I formatted these worksheets, RTF files for making changes before using them in your own classroom, and Ereading Worksheets for completing online on any Internet connected device.

I hope that these worksheets give students an adequate amount of practice with identifying similes and metaphors. I believe that they will. If your students need more practice with figurative language and poetic devices, I have many more activities on this website. Check some of the links below to find your next activity. Thanks for visiting!

Figurative Language Common Core State Standards

13 comments.

I love it ❤️ ♥️

Beth DeLano

How do I get the students’ grades if they do it online? I LOVE this!!

They have to send the results to you or print and save them and show you later.

The worksheets were amazing. My school told me this site for doing the revision of SIMILIES AND METAPHORS.

i can understand the whole thing and its cool!!

Carol (Cross) Howell

How can I download worksheets without downloading your download tools. I need to simply download without a third party app.

Espcially when it comes to answer pages Which come out very small.

You shouldn’t need to download any tools to download the worksheets.

What is happening when you try to download a worksheet?

You can print the answer keys just by pressing the print button or CTRL + P. They should print out as a full-sheet with no ads if everything is working correctly.

Alterately, I suppose you could download or save the image files of the answer keys.

Oh, also, clicking on the answer key will take you directly to the file where it should grow very large.

Salvador salido

The faces at the street crossing shine like a row of egg onpantry shelf

emma fugate

i love similes and metaphors!!!!!!!!!!!!

the last pdf link is broken!:(

it was an amazing time completing the worksheets and it was fun doing the online MCQ thanks navigation

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Metaphors!.

Published by Εφροσύνη Μπουκουβαλαίοι Modified over 5 years ago

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