"The Metaphor"

"The Metaphor"

by Borges

Notes by Meg

-Metaphors are made by linking two things together, creating an incredible sum of possible metaphors: So why do poets use the same metaphors when there are so many possibilities?

-Lugones tried to discover new metaphors for the moon

-Words are metaphors yet we don't perceive them as such anymore

-The same metaphor may have different effects on our imagination depending on the order and logical thinking

Pattern:  Eyes and stars

-Tenderness when in a lover's context, yet there can be an indifference when the night looks down upon us

Pattern: Time flowing

-Tennyson: "Time flowing in the middle of the night."  Time continues while all is quiet and asleep

Pattern: Women and flowers

-Stevenson's Weir of Hermiston: a woman is described as an "animal the color of flowers"

-"Animal" suggests brutality which is overshadowed by the "color of flowers"

Pattern: Life is a dream

-Shakespeare: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on."  If we are dreams, or dreamers of dreams, can we make such statements?

-Chuan Tzu: had a dream he was a butterfly and upon waking he didn't know if he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man

Pattern:  Sleep and dying

Frost: "And miles to go before I sleep."  The first line suggests "sleep" as in unconsciousness while the second line uses "sleep" as death -- "anything suggested is far more effective than anything laid down."

Pattern:  The moon is a mirror

-Persian poet: the moon is a "mirror of time": "mirror" means brightness and fragility, a clear moon we look at reminds us of time because it is ancient

-Anglo-Saxon kenning: the sea is a "whale road": suggests the great expanse of the sea

-Norse/Irish metaphor: "a web of men": a battle - web meaning a medieval battle of swords, shields, and men dying to kill each other

Byron: "She walks in beauty, like the night." 

-Double metaphor - the woman is likened to the night but the night is also likened to the woman

Conclusions:

-Although there are thousands of possibilities, most metaphors can be traced back to simple patterns

-However, there are some metaphors that are not traced back to a pattern, like "whale road": we may be able to create new metaphors that do not belong to patterns