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Metaphor

Rhetorical Devices
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 comparison that states one thing is another. It transfers qualities from one image or idea to a different subject.

Detailed Definition
Metaphor creates meaning by identifying unlike things, as when a poet calls time “a thief,” memory “a house,” or the moon “a broken coin.” The comparison is not literal but imaginative, inviting readers to perceive one thing through the qualities of another. Metaphor can clarify abstractions, intensify emotion, and organize an entire poem around a central image. Extended metaphors may develop across several lines, while a single compressed metaphor can transform the tone of a phrase.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage,” the world is metaphorically presented as a theater; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy, I have had to kill you” turns a father into a symbolic oppressor; “The moon is a silver lantern above the pines” identifies the moon with a lantern; “Grief is a locked room with no window” makes an emotion into a physical enclosure
Additional Notes
A metaphor makes an implied comparison without using like or as: “the mind is a storm.” Unlike a simile, it directly identifies one thing with another, inviting readers to infer shared qualities. Extended metaphors may continue across several lines or an entire poem.
Other Meanings of “Metaphor”
Also Known As
Transference
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