Home › Glossary › Letter A

Associated analogy

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A comparison based on perceived affinity or contextual proximity rather than direct similarity

Detailed Definition
Associated analogy is a figurative device in poetry where two concepts are linked not through direct similarity but through cultural, emotional, or contextual association; for instance, linking a wilting flower with grief not because they are alike, but because the flower is traditionally associated with funerary rites, thereby deepening symbolic resonance through shared connotation rather than literal resemblance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage” links life to theater through contextual association; In “The Road Not Taken,” Frost associates diverging paths with life choices; Donne’s “No man is an island” connects humanity to a continent through implied kinship; Whitman’s “I contain multitudes” associates the self with diverse social roles and identities
Additional Notes
Associated analogy draws on cultural, emotional, or contextual links rather than literal similarity; differs from simile by implying connection through shared experience or convention; common in metaphysical and modernist poetry; useful for evoking complex ideas economically
Also Known As
Contextual analogy associative metaphor relational simile implied correspondence Kindred metaphor
Skip to main content