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Inverted metaphor

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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 metaphor in which the usual subject and object roles are reversed

Detailed Definition
Inverted metaphor is a figurative construction where the usual subject-predicate relationship is reversed, asserting identity rather than resemblance (e.g., “Juliet is the sun” instead of “Juliet is like the sun”), intensifying the metaphor’s ontological claim and emotional force, as seen in Shakespeare and Dickinson.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s “Juliet is the sun” (sun is not like Juliet—Juliet is the sun); Dickinson: “Hope is the thing with feathers”; Plath: “I am a camera with its shutter open”; Neruda: “You are like the rain that falls on the roof” inverted to “The rain that falls on the roof is you”
Additional Notes
An inverted metaphor reverses expected subject-comparison roles (e.g., “the storm was a lion” becomes “the lion was a storm”)—creates surprise or reorients perception; used for defamiliarization or philosophical insight.
Also Known As
Metaphorical inversion reversed conceit subject-predicate flip ontological metaphor Flipped analogy Reversed metaphor
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