Activity #1

Question

What are metaphors and how are they used in literature? What makes a metaphor effective?

Metaphors utilize the image of one subject as if it were analogous to another, seemingly unrelated, subject. Figures of speech, such as saying someone is "green" to mean that they are new at something, are often metaphors.

Read the following poem, Dreams, by Langston Hughes. Can you identify a metaphor in the poem?

Dreams by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

The poem contains structurally simple metaphors which follow the formula a is b. These can be found in both stanzas. The first contains this line:

Life is a broken-winged bird

While the second stanza contains the following line:

Life is a barren field

Think about these questions and keep the notes. You will submit these at the end of the lesson.

What is this metaphor referring to in this poem?

How do these metaphors work in relation to the poem's title, "Dreams?"

How is this description different from saying simply that when dreams are unfulfilled life is difficult?

How is it different from saying that a life without dreams is like a broken-winged bird? Would using a simile rather than a metaphor negate or weaken Hughes' poem?

What makes this an effective metaphor and why?

Activity #2

Read the following poem, You Begin, by Margaret Atwood.

You Begin

by Margaret Atwood

You begin this way:

this is your hand,

this is your eye,

that is a fish, blue and flat

on the paper, almost

the shape of an eye.

This is your mouth, this is an O

or a moon, whichever

you like. This is yellow.

Outside the window

is the rain, green

because it is summer, and beyond that

the trees and then the world,

which is round and has only

the colors of these nine crayons.

This is the world, which is fuller

and more difficult to learn than I have said.

You are right to smudge it that way

with the red and then

the orange: the world burns.

Once you have learned these words

you will learn that there are more

words than you can ever learn.

The word hand floats above your hand

like a small cloud over a lake.

The word hand anchors

your hand to this table,

your hand is a warm stone

I hold between two words.

This is your hand, these are my hands, this is the world,

which is round but not flat and has more colors

than we can see.

It begins, it has an end,

this is what you will

come back to, this is your hand.

The end

Concentrate on the following stanza:

Once you have learned these words
you will learn that there are more
words than you can ever learn.
The word hand floats above your hand
like a small cloud over a lake.
The word hand anchors
your hand to this table,
your hand is a warm stone
I hold between two words.

Think about these questions and keep the notes. You will submit your answers at the end of the lesson.

What does the cloud in the simile represent?

What does the warm stone signify? Is it only the child's hand?

How is this description different from saying simply that the hand is warm?

How is this description different from saying the hand is like a warm stone?

Is this an effective metaphor? Why or why not?

Review

Directions: Submit your answers to Activity #1 and Activity #2.