tungtied2u
Not necessary
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2004
- Posts
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On metaphor..from Stephen Dobyns
from his book Best Words, Best Order
I found this excerpt to be very informative and helpful..
"The purpose of the metaphor is to heighten our sense of the object. If we don't know the object, the heightening cannot occur.
A mystery is potentially capable of being understood. What is mysterious lends itself to the search for understanding, but what is vague leads to confusion. Many weak poems substitute vagueness for mystery. They withhold information as to the object of the metaphor and offer only image or what appears to be image, which gives the poem an aura of mystery and meaning. But image without object is nonfunctional, since its contemplation won't increase our understanding. It is not thecontemplation of image that leads to understanding; rather it is thinking about the relationship btween the object and the image. This is very important. Image without object is evocative, but it is a dead end. The image has no function without the object, while the purpose of metaphor is to draw attention to the relationship between its parts.
This is not to suggest that the object must be always stated, but even if the image stands by itself, let's say to create a mood, we have some sense of an object, even if it is only the slightest inference."
from his book Best Words, Best Order
I found this excerpt to be very informative and helpful..
"The purpose of the metaphor is to heighten our sense of the object. If we don't know the object, the heightening cannot occur.
A mystery is potentially capable of being understood. What is mysterious lends itself to the search for understanding, but what is vague leads to confusion. Many weak poems substitute vagueness for mystery. They withhold information as to the object of the metaphor and offer only image or what appears to be image, which gives the poem an aura of mystery and meaning. But image without object is nonfunctional, since its contemplation won't increase our understanding. It is not thecontemplation of image that leads to understanding; rather it is thinking about the relationship btween the object and the image. This is very important. Image without object is evocative, but it is a dead end. The image has no function without the object, while the purpose of metaphor is to draw attention to the relationship between its parts.
This is not to suggest that the object must be always stated, but even if the image stands by itself, let's say to create a mood, we have some sense of an object, even if it is only the slightest inference."
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