Question

Would "a typewriter on fire" be a metaphor??

Answer 1

You need to provide the entire sentence -- or preferably at least three sentences -- so we know the context.

Let me know.

Answer 2

Sweet Like a Crow Your voice sounds like a scorpion being pushed
through a glass tube
like someone has just trod on a peacock
like wind howling in coconut
like a rusty bible, like someone pulling barbed wire
across a stone courtyard, like a pig drowning
a vattacka being fried
a bone shaking hands
a frog singing at Carnegie Hall.
Like a crow swimming in milk
like a nose being hit by a mango
like the crowd at the Royal-Thomian match,
a womb full of twins, a pariah dog
with a magpie in its mouth
like the midnight jet from Casablanca
like Air Pakistan curry,
a typewriter on fire, like a spirit in the gas
which cooks your dinner, like a hundred
pappadans being crunched, like someone
uselessly trying to light 3 Roses matches in a dark room,
the clicking sound of a reef when you put your head in the sea,
a dolphin reciting epic poetry to a sleepy audience,
the sound of a fan when someone throws brinjals at it,
like pineapples being sliced in the Pettah market
like betel juice hitting a butterfly in mid-air
like a whole village running naked onto the street
and tearing their sarongs, like an angry family
pushing a jeep out of the mud, like dirt on a needle,
like 8 sharks being carried on the back of a bicycle
like 3 old ladies locked in a lavatory
like the sound I heard when having an afternoon sleep
and someone walked through my room in ankle bracelets. This is Michael Ondaatje's poem

Answer 3

Which line is a metaphor?

Answer 4

Since all or nearly all the rest have "like" in front of them (making those similes), those words could be considered a metaphor.

But none of these have "like" in front of them, either. So I'd say this entire poem is a mix of similes, metaphors, and personification.

<I>a bone shaking hands

a frog singing at Carnegie Hall.

a womb full of twins,

a pariah dog / with a magpie in its mouth

the clicking sound of a reef when you put your head in the sea,

a dolphin reciting epic poetry to a sleepy audience,

the sound of a fan when someone throws brinjals at it, </i>

Answer 5

Thanks

Answer 6

You're welcome.