--- title: "Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification" description: "Metaphors are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in comparison with..." author: "madina_0292" published: "2013-02-17T23:12:04+00:00" modified: "2013-02-17T23:12:04+00:00" locale: "ru" canonical_url: "https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-metonymy-personification-332757" markdown_url: "https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-metonymy-personification-332757/markdown" site_name: "Yvision.kz" --- # Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification > Metaphors are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in comparison with... ***Metaphors ***are used to help us understand the unknown, because we use what we know in comparison with something we don't know to get a better understanding of the unknown. The simplest and also the most effective poetic device is the use of comparison. For example, "The (first thing) is the (second thing). Remember, the "two things" are unlike. Metaphors use the verb "to be." It might almost be said that poetry is founded on two main means of comparing things: simile and metaphor. We heighten our ordinary speech by the continual use of such comparisons as "fresh as a daisy," "tough as leather," "comfortable as an old shoe," "it fits like the Paper on the wall," "gay as a lark," "happy as the day is long, pretty as a picture." These are all recognizable similes; they use the words "as" or "like." ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/fWY8j3iKXaZEHxotv9o3ZjDgUdE6wR.jpg) A metaphor is a comparison. A metaphor establishes a relationship at once; it leaves more to the imagination. It is a shortcut to the meaning; it sets two unlike things side by side and makes us see the likeness between them. When Robert Burns wrote "My love is like a red, red rose" he used a simile. When [Robert Herrick](http://www.bartleby.com/101/257.html) wrote "You are a tulip" he used a metaphor. *** ![Metaphor of loosing money](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/G60b84RatTf0mgHKFpEkS5m4ao7M18.jpg) *** ***Metaphor*** of loosing money   Metaphor: Heart of stone Comparaison: A heart to a rock Analogies: Heart is cold Heart is hard Heart is unmoving Heart is uncaring Heart is heavy Can't open their heart ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/z7O86nakxtXGHTJN73CJKbRufa71XG.jpg) *** *** Metaphor: the silence was a blood-curdling scream of anguish, set out to break my soul Comparaison: silence to a painful scream Analogies: the silence was painful the silence was deafening the silence was breaking my will the silence is a killer the silence was a punishment ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/KK2bqRt7EVLDWM8Yh73swwgWy9XrtA.jpg) Metaphor: life is a mere dream, a fleeting shadow on a cloudy day. Comparaison: Life to a short hazy memory. Analogies: life is short life passes quickly life is hazy life is but a dream a glimpse of life is short and hazy ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/YnFtgQ5hG193dEjVDc3QY67Iv7DZMQ.jpg) ***Simile*** A [figure of speech](http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/figuresterms.htm) in which two fundamentally unlike things are explicitly compared, usually in a phrase introduced by *like* or *as*. ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/7XoD0245m650W0qierAShi5Zeq336w.jpg) ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/BFlt50y3l8iYY75OXsNV9O54iGpy8y.jpg) "**Simile** and Metaphor differ only in degree of stylistic refinement. The Simile, in which a comparison is made directly between two objects, belongs to an earlier stage of literary expression: it is the deliberate elaboration of a correspondence, often pursued for its own sake. But a Metaphor is the swift illumination of an equivalence. Two [images](http://grammar.about.com/od/fh/g/imagterm.htm), or an idea and an image, stand equal and opposite; clash together and respond significantly, surprising the reader with a sudden light." ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/6wD5KIevcqQwquFiboK32Sh6LqaB8p.jpg) ***Metonymy*** Metonymies are frequently used in literature and in everyday speech. A[metonymy](http://www.yourdictionary.com/article/6791/) is a word or phrase that is used to stand in for another word. Sometimes a metonymy is chosen because it is a well-known characteristic of the word. ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/fIy1DbcJ6O9ltY5kXszpXXJOc5qcR8.jpg) One famous example of metonymy is the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword," which originally came from Edward Bulwer Lytton's play Richelieu. This sentence has two examples of metonymy: - The "pen" stands in for "the written word" - The "sword" stands in for "military aggression and force" Metonymy is also the [rhetorical](http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/rhetoricterm.htm) strategy of describing something indirectly by referring to things around it, as in describing someone's clothing to characterize the individual ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/6Qe1F28UUfm3OGCr01VsAM8ODngwxR.jpg) The **metonymic** Golden Arches [logo](http://grammar.about.com/od/il/g/Logo.htm) of McDonald's Corporation   ***Personification** * Personification is the technique of giving a non-human thing human qualities such as hearing, feeling, talking, or making decisions. Writers use personification to emphasize something or make it stand out. ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/BtG5FkSpxhtb1rSTWX33JziH5Rw3VS.jpg) Personification makes the material more interesting and creates a new way to look at every day things ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/w6XkmrmeEFXrF51Fga6UhAUY11Qm9V.jpg) ![Metaphor, simile, metonymy, personification](https://storage.yvision.kz/images/user/madina_0292/dKZh6aSjj5RymzNASEv2AnoE8V184Q.jpg) --- Source: [https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-metonymy-personification-332757](https://yvision.kz/post/metaphor-simile-metonymy-personification-332757)