METAPHOR, in rhetoric. See ORATORY, n. co.
METAPHOR and Allegory, in poetry.—A metaphor differs from a simile, in form only, not in substance: in a simile the two subjects are kept distinct in the expression, as well as in the thought; in a metaphor, the two subjects are kept distinct in the thought only, not in the expression. A hero resembles a lion, and upon that resemblance many similes have been raised by Homer and other poets. But instead of resembling a lion, let us take the aid of the imagination, and feign or figure the hero to be a lion, by that variation the simile is converted into a metaphor; which is carried on by
describing all the qualities of a lion that resemble those of the hero. The fundamental pleasure here, that of resemblance, belongs to the thought. An additional pleasure arises from the expression: the poet, by figuring his hero to be a lion, goes on to describe the lion in appearance, but in reality the hero; and his description is peculiarly beautiful, by expressing the virtues and qualities of the hero in new terms, which, properly speaking, belong not to him, but to the lion. This will better be understood by examples. A family connected with a common parent, resembles a tree, the trunk and branches of which are connected with a common root: but let us suppose, that a family is figured, not barely to be like a tree, but to be a tree; and then the simile will be converted into a metaphor, in the following manner:
Edward's sev'n sons, whereof thyself art one,
Were sev'n fair branches, springing from one root;
Some of these branches by the deff'ries cut:
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glo'iter,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
Is hack'd down, and his summer-leaves all faded,
By Envy's hand and Murder's bloody axe.
Richard II. act. i. sc. 3.
Figuring human life to be a voyage at sea:
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to Fortune: