Aim of the Day:How are metaphors used by writers to send meaning to readers?
First, our class was given the task of interpreting the aim of the day, given on the first slide of the presentation for today’s lesson, independently and keeping the question in mind throughout the entirety of the class. We then proceeded to switch gears to the do now and were given about five minutes to answer it by ourselves. The question was as following:
Do Now:
Complete the following: Love is --------------- .
After time ran out whoever wished to participate raised their hands virtually and we discussed what was put in the blank space as a class. Several of the responses included :
“Love is Blindness”
“Love is a chemical defect found on the losing side”
”Love is an open door”
”Love is like a four leaf clover because it's hard to find”
“Love is pain and sacrifice;it is never perfect, you always have to sacrifice something, and in actuality it’s very rare”
“Love is dead”
“Love is war”
”Love is a changeless obsession that can’t be changed”
”Love is a game that anyone can win”
“Love is not something you find love is something that finds you”
”Love is a mystery”
and so forth. Evidently, it was interesting to note that a number of these responses were allusions to pop culture and multimedia among other things while others were derived on the spot and seemed more personal. For instance the phrase, “Love is an open door” is already fairly popularized and was originally part of the lyrics for one of the songs on the hit Disney Movie “Frozen”. On the other hand, we see the phrase “Love is pain and sacrifice;it is never perfect, you always have to sacrifice something, and in actuality it’s very rare” and aren’t able to connect it to anything we already know as it is original and was written by one of our peers at this very moment. Either way, all of these examples have one important thing in common, they are all metaphors. We then transition to our second slide.
A student chooses to spirit read the notes detailing what a metaphor is and some additional helpful things to remember when incorporating this form of figurative language into our own writing. As a refresher I will provide the definition of a metaphor down below:
Metaphor: The distinct comparison where one thing or idea substitutes for another.
It’s a figure of speech that develops a comparison which is different from a simile.
Miss Peterson noted that the definition stating “A metaphor is a comparison without using like or as” is a terrible one as it doesn’t pose an actual meaning for this term.She follows up by saying ,” Metaphor makes a comparison. Similes compare things as if they are similar to each other. Metaphors basically state what things are.” Following this, we move onto the next line which is simply a helpful note on the usage of metaphors. The words listed within the parenthesis are variations of the verb, “To Be”.
Note: It often uses the form of the verb, “To Be.” (is, am, are, was, were, will be, being, been, could, should, would, has, have, having, had, may, might, must)
Another idea worth mentioning is that a metaphor makes an implicit or hidden comparison and not an explicit one. The picture provided at the bottom is the next subject of discussion and it includes a multitude of ways in which the forms of the verb are used. Here, Miss Bergstrom brings up the song her middle school teacher made them learn in order to memorize these examples.To recognize metaphors a lot of the time it uses a form of the word to be. “All men are dogs” is a common example incorporating this.
We then proceeded to watch a video adding on to what we have learned. The link to for it is listed here as well:
--Red Room Poetry Object Poetic Device #3: Metaphor [2:14]
Next, we move onto the third slide where another student spirit reads the denotation of an extended metaphor: “An extended metaphor is developed over several lines or throughout a poem.”The second line follows up by mentioning several famous poems that involve extended metaphors. We are then given additional time to analyze the phrase written within the hourglass image. A girl provides the class with her view of the comparison between the hourglass and life and manages to score ten points for her team. The picture is shown beneath this sentence:
The fourth slide featured a piece from the New York Times which several students partake in spirit reading while the rest of us were required to annotate along the way.Miss Peterson stops us once throughout this activity to clarify the definition of the word, regurgitate in one of the sentences. Regurgitate is another way of saying vomiting, spitting back up “Like learning is about application not regurgitation” We then make a smooth transition to the fifth slide where another six of us split up the text and read it. The exact link to this article and further detail is listed here :
-The Opinion Pages | OP-ED COLUMNIST “Poetry for Everyday Life”APRIL 11, 2011
By David Brooks
The sixth slide has a class discussion within it. First, a boy spirit reads Emily Dickinson’s poem, namely “Hope is the Thing with Feather” and then we review the question given at the bottom in conversation. It asks how Dickinson utilizes the extended metaphor, it being between hope and a bird, to express a certain theme or message to the reader. The first person states their belief that hope is similar to a bird as the animal is able to persevere through extreme conditions whether it be natural or physical, it provides for itself without reliance on other creatures, and it spreads hope. Erica responds to this by adding in the statement that “Hope is virtually a bird” to express the theme that it is both uplifting and enduring. Andrea goes on to say that hope is everywhere. She compares it to the birds that she hears and sees everywhere. Bridgit agrees and contributes her opinion with the thought that hope is fragile and should be tended to maintain.To summarize, Just as this creature of flight is able to persevere through various environmental obstacles as well as thrive within any ecosystem no matter how harsh, this state of mind flourishes no matter where you are and is what keeps us going. Hope is uplifting as exemplified by the gale whose song is present in the depths of our soul encouraging us with its “voice”. Additionally, we see that hope should be tended to as it solely provides for others with no underlying needs existing with it. Hope is everywhere, similarly to how I see and hear birds wherever I am. Therefore, all of these ideas constitute the theme that hope is one of the greatest gifts we have.
A team challenge is announced with the instructions requiring us to work together in order to complete the remaining three slides within the time span of fifteen to twenty minutes. In my own group we arranged that a girl would read “Mother to Son” By Langston Hughes” while the rest of us annotate whatever we feel is worth referring back to when writing out our answers.
The First Question Asks the Following:What extended metaphor is used in the poem? What is Hughes expressing through the use of this metaphor? (think about what the “crystal stair” and the “tacks”/”splinters” might represent.)
After some deliberation the five of us agreed upon an answer that addressed the question and combined what we each brought up. The extended metaphor is developed by contrasting two variations of a staircase. One is built of crystal, which in itself is a highly transparent, brilliant, and pristine type of glass often used to construct lavish decorations. It is representative of a path where the individual has an easy, affluent, and perfect yet boring with no interference. The second is shown to be a rickety and heavily worn out road. The stairs here are symbolic of a more tiresome, difficult, and demanding life where internal strength and determination are key.
The Second Question Asks the Following: Look specifically at the final stanza: what is the mother’s message to her son?
The same process was used to figure out the best response for this question using all of our input.The message the boy’s mother develops throughout the entirety of the piece is that life may be painful, draining, uncertain, and challenging but managing to overcome all of these hurdles time and time again without giving up is what makes it worthwhile.
The image portrays a crystal staircase. 
The image portrays a crooked, worn out, wooden staircase.The ninth slide quotes a portion of the lyrics from one of Tupac Shakur’s, a former rapper and actor, hits called “The Rose That Grew from Concrete”. Another girl in the group volunteered to read through this poem while we once again highland and noted whatever we saw fit. Then we moved on to the questions on this slide and followed the same process to formulate a cohesive response to both of these questions.
The Third Question Asks the Following:How does this poem utilize an extended metaphor?
The answer we gave to this was: This poem uses a flower growing in undesirable conditions as a substitute for a hardworking individual to create the overall message that by defying all odds and believing in your worth as well as your dreams, you will have the opportunity to come out on top. The text uses a play on words as well as symbolism to convey this theme.
The Fourth Question Asks the Following: What does the rose represent? What about the concrete?
The answer to this goes as follows:The rose is symbolic of a successful person who defied the expectations and limitations others set for them as well as the general difficulties in life to grow and become who they currently are. The concrete is seen as the opposing force within this poem as it is generally a heavy rough building material that is seemingly impermeable for plants. Nevertheless, the flower was rooted in the ground, took the chance to start developing through that crack and became something beautiful. In real life the concrete is external as well as internal challenges that prevent you from reaching your goals.
The final part of this assignment is to compare elements of both of these extended metaphors and their themes and construct a paragraph reflecting this.
The Fifth Question Asks the Following: How do both poems use an extended metaphor to express a common theme or message to the reader? (What are these extended metaphors and what is the common theme?)
As usual, my team members and I spent a couple of minutes expressing our opinions and then went off to create our answers on the basis of these conversations. The answer is as follows:Both poems use objects to tie into the lives of those who come from difficult beginnings yet have unrelenting hope, gritt, and determination to make it through their hardships. In Langston Hughes’s selection a strong willed woman shares the knowledge she attained throughout her life with her son with the usage of two different staircases. The crystal one is smooth and straightforward as is the life of one who is on it and the other is distorted and bumpy proving to be a much more challenging way of living. The second poem is written by a well known rapper and his lyrics concern a rose that grew through rock. In this case the metaphor exists to show how your dreams combined with grit, hard work will pave the way for you to get where you want to be no matter how unattainable this seems at first. Never giving up no matter what, as cliche as it sounds, is the common theme developed using the various extended metaphors throughout the two poems.
Once our time ticks out we are logged out of our breakout rooms and relocated back into the general meeting. Once the class is fully gathered, Miss Peterson chooses to recite the first text once more and asks for volunteers to share our answers to the prompts. A few of the kids appear to have almost identical responses to mine while some others present newer concepts. The same procedure is followed when we briefly go over the third, fourth, and fifth questions which gives us time to edit, adjust, and judge our own writing before we have to submit it that following evening to receive feedback for it.
STUDENT REFLECTION:
What did I learn?
-Throughout this lesson I was given a much more detailed view of extended metaphors and the large impact they have on our speech, writing, and arts. In my previous years my teachers always briefly spoke about figurative language and skipped over most of the elements of their specifics, which also applied to metaphors. One of the ideas that surprised me the most was the literal definition of a metaphor and how its simplistic definition doesn’t really do it justice as it is not simply a different sort of simile, but a completely different sort of comparison stating what objects actually are. Even though I previously studied Langston Hughes selection it was wonderful to scope out the other poetry and piece together the internal messages they present using tools such as extended metaphors. All in all, I was taught that this topic isn’t at all boring as I once perceived it to be and has many depths and layers to it that make it a great topic for discussion and interesting to examine.
Why did I learn it?
-I learned this topic in order to broaden my understanding of extended metaphors and the basic outline of how to construct poems using this style on my own. We were previously told that we have a major poem anthology project in our near future and I am willing to bet that one of the requirements will have something to do with this lesson. Miss Peterson put this slideshow together to first focus our attention on common phrases involving metaphors we use and/or know, then solidify some key points about metaphors followed by an explanation plus video detailing the aspects of extended metaphors, next she made us do a class read of a document using this format and discuss it as a class, this was followed by group time where we delved deeper into the subject matter and gained a substantial understanding of poetry using extended metaphors and how they tie into themes. Ultimately, the lesson was done as a guide to mastering extended metaphors in poetry and as a beginner’s guide leading up to a much larger assignment.
How will I use what I have learned?
-I will use this information to aid me in the future for school assignments and purely for my own benefit. This topic is prevalent in a number of courses that I will likely take in my other highschool classes and/or college ones meaning learning this material early on allows me to use it more easily later on. Personally, I feel that I might practice my skills writing extended metaphors as a pastime as I am quite honestly horrible at poetry and want to improve in this task. Aside from this, reading poetry and identifying extended metaphors will certainly come in handy and if I ever need to converse about poetry to someone, I will have some subjects, one of them being this to discuss.
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