Metaphors

Metaphors are another form of imagery. Metaphors  go further than similes, because they do not simply describe something like something else – they describe things as if they are something else.  For example, in Alfred Noyes  The Highwayman

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,

The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,

And the highwayman came riding

Riding – riding

Up to the old inn door

The moon is not literally a ghost ship, nor is the road a real ribbon of moonlight – but those descriptions help us create images in our minds. With very few words the poet conjures up a dramatic night scene with wind blowing through the trees, clouds moving across the sky – and the road through the dark moor picked out by the moonlight.

In October Salmon by Ted Hughes, the poet is moved by the sight of a dying salmon. 

In the October light

He hangs there, patched with leper cloths

His living body becomes death’s puppet

Dolled by death in her crude paints and drapes

The salmon  is not literally patched with leper cloths, but this is a way of describing the changes in the salmon’s body as it is dying: its scales are now discoloured and peeling, so that it looks as if it is covered in diseased rags. Similarly, the salmon’s body is not literally death’s puppet – but in this way the poet draws our attention to the fact that the salmon is no longer  in control of its life, and that death is very close. Finally, Death of course has not “dolled up” the salmon:  here the poet is referring to the extraordinary  changes in colour in a dying salmon’s body – the colour is garish, like crude make up.

This aspect of poetry can make some poems feel difficult at first, but it is worth persevering and trying to work out what a poet wants to say.