Literary notes about metaphor (AI summary)
In literature, the term "metaphor" functions as a versatile device that both illuminates abstract ideas and challenges conventional language. It is employed to draw vivid comparisons that transform complex or intangible subjects into images readers can grasp, as in discussions of spiritual or existential dilemmas [1]. Authors often use metaphors to add layers of meaning, whether by substituting one concept for another to reveal hidden truths [2] or by imbuing ordinary observations with symbolic significance, as when a structured assembly of elements is likened to a living organism [3][4]. At times, critics note that the very precision—or imprecision—of a metaphor can blur the line between language and reality [5], highlighting its double-edged nature in both clarifying and complicating thought.
- This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble.
— from The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer - For the true poet the metaphor is not a rhetorical figure, but a vicarious image which actually hovers before him in place of a concept.
— from The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - 6 ὡς οὖν παρελάβετε τὸν Χριστόν, Ἰησοῦν τὸν Κύριον, ἐν αὐτῷ περιπατεῖτε, → τὴν τάξιν] ‘ your orderly array ’, a military metaphor: comp.
— from St. Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon by J. B. Lightfoot - By eight o’clock the four sides of Red Lion-square were, if we may be allowed the metaphor, a mass of living heads.
— from Aesop's Fables by Aesop - But as a consequence of the extreme imprecision of his language, it is very difficult for a primitive to distinguish a metaphor from the reality.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim
