Aim: How are metaphors used by writers to send meaning to readers?
Do Now: Complete the following: Love is _
To me love is everything. It is what keeps me moving. It allows me to look forward to completing my goals. Having someone who loves me makes me want to make them proud. Kelly herself thought that love is powerful while Ryan said that it was affection. In the end, everyone said that love is powerful and is affection using words with similar denotations.
On the next slide we talked about what a metaphor is. All of us had experienced dealing with metaphors so we understood that a metaphor was a comparison of 2 or more things. However, unlike a simile, a metaphor does not use like or as to compare. Instead, it uses forms of the word “to be” to make comparisons. Such forms include is, am, are, was, were, will be, being, been, could, should, would, has, have, having, had, may, might, and must. Some metaphors are implicit while others can be really explicit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4gMKZKU3lE
Next, we watch this video. It started with a short poem filled with metaphors. Then, it described what metaphors are. It talked about how a metaphor is used by poets to create rich associations and emotional connections between different objects and experiences. At the end of the video, it encouraged us to make our own metaphors which is something we do everyday. We might not notice but metaphors are around us.
After watching the video, we moved onto the next slide. The next slide was on extended metaphors. An extended metaphor is a metaphor that is developed throughout a poem. A great example of an extended metaphor used in a poem would be “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost or “Mother To Son,” by Langston Hughes.
The next 2 slides were an excerpt of an article titled “Poetry for Everyday Life” By David Brooks. The article talked about how we used metaphors everyday without much thought. It mentioned how we used certain words in metaphors of certain things. When we think about it, we often used health metaphors to describe a relationship. A lot of our thinking is shaped by metaphors. We identified new things that we never knew about using metaphors. Metaphors are a part of the world and are a strong pillar of it.
After the excerpt of the article, we had a class discussion of the poem “Hope is the Thing with Feathers,” by Emily Dickinson. We talked about how Emily Dickinson used an extended metaphor in the poem to express that hope is important and powerful. In the poem, hope is an idea that is being compared to a bird throughout the poem.
Next up we did group work. The first poem we read together was “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. My group’s team captain gracefully stepped up and read the poem to us. We talked about how the Mother is clearly telling the Son that life is challenging but to never give up.
The next poem we read was “The Rose That Grew from Concrete.” by Tupac Shakur. My team captain gracefully volunteered herself to read again. This poem was also about life struggles and to never give up. However, it uses the example of a Rose trying to break through Concrete. Determination and hope trying to break through the struggles of life.
In the end, we compared the 2 poems and talked about how the first poem “Mother to Son” used a more explicit extended metaphor while the second poem “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” used an implicit one. Both poems talked about how life is tough and challenging, but if you never give up, in the end you will succeed.
After our group work, we had a class discussion. All the groups agreed that both poems talked about never giving up due to the tough challenges that life gives you and to persevere as in the end, you will succeed.
Reflection
Extended metaphors are useful tools that I can utilize when creating a poem. After this lesson, I feel more confident in my abilities to apply an extended metaphor into my poems. I could use extended metaphors to help me compare things and explain deeper about what my metaphors mean.
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