On Tuesday, we discussed how common figurative language is in our society, and how almost everything we say and think contains a metaphor. Here's a brief refresher for those who either missed class or accidentally "dozed off" (to use one of the metaphors we discussed!).
1. Everyday speech is made up of metaphors, because we can't think abstractly. We need to place concepts such as time, sleep, love, death, belief, etc., into concrete terms that relate to something we do know. A metaphor (or simile) puts one things into terms of another to make the unknown knowable, or to suggest another aspect of this idea.
2. For example: "I fell asleep," "I woke up." Both are metaphors. You don't "fall" asleep, since you can fall asleep sitting up, standing up, or simply laying down. "Falling" is a metaphor that explains the process of "going" to sleep...you feel like you're free falling into a state of unconsciousness. When you wake up, you feel like you're rising "up" into consciousness. Both are metaphors that explain a strange, abstract process that we otherwise wouldn't have words for.
3. Other common ones (see if you can get these): "Can I borrow your time?" "I have time to kill." "Life's a bitch," "No, love's a bitch." "I am SO over him." "Your school called looking for you." "Table #3 wants his check."
4. Since all of these metaphors are so common, we no longer recognize them as poetry. So what poetry does is make NEW metaphors out of old ideas, so we can see the world through a new lens or perspective. One of the most common metaphors that poetry likes to play with is: "Life is a Journey." Most of the poems in this collection use this general metaphor to create hundreds of new poems that suggest new ways to understand what life is, how we live it, and what the purpose of living truly is.
READ THE POEMS ON PAGES 1-7 FOR THURSDAY, THEN CHOOSE ONE POEM TO ANSWER ALL THREE QUESTIONS:
Q1: Discuss an interesting metaphor in the poem that makes you see one thing/idea in terms of something very different. How does it work, and what makes it so new or interesting for you?
Q2: How does this poem use the idea "life is a journey" in a new or interesting way? How do we see life, growing old, dying, or exploring new things in terms of something different? Does the poem make you more hopeful about life, or more pessimistic about life?
Q3: Poems are songs, meant to be read aloud and sometimes, even set to music and sung (song lyrics are also poems, though we rarely read them without the music). If this poem were a song, what kind of music would it be? How would this kind of music help us 'hear' the meaning of the song?
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