AP® English Literature and Composition review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/lit/units/2/2-6)
Unit 2 · Topic 2.6
2.6 Metaphors: what one thing lends another
A metaphor treats one thing as if it were another, without "like" or "as." Qualities move from the comparison subject to the main subject, and the reader's own associations do much of the work. You learn to say exactly which qualities carry over, how context shapes them and what the differences between the two things reveal.
Key terms
- metaphor
- main subject
- comparison subject
- implied metaphor
- tenor and vehicle
How a metaphor works
In "Grief is a heavy coat," the main subject is grief and the comparison subject is a heavy coat. You're asked to feel grief's weight, how it wraps around you and maybe how you can't take it off indoors. The metaphor says these things faster and more vividly than an explanation could.
Metaphors usually link things that don't normally go together. That's what makes them work: an unexpected comparison makes you see the main subject freshly.
Direct and implied metaphors
Some metaphors state both parts: "Hope is a bird." Others only hint at the comparison subject through a verb or adjective: "Her hope took flight," or "His anger simmered." These are implied metaphors. Look at verbs, especially ones that don't literally fit the subject. Anger can't literally simmer, so the verb brings in a pot on a stove.
What readers bring
Metaphors rely on what readers already know and feel about the comparison subject. A metaphor comparing a person to a wolf works because readers associate wolves with hunger, danger or loyalty to a pack. Those associations aren't written on the page; you bring them. That's why you should state them explicitly when you analyze.
Context decides what transfers
The same metaphor can mean different things in different situations. "She was a fortress" could praise someone's strength in a war story or criticize someone's coldness in a love story. Read what's happening around the metaphor before deciding what it means.
Differences matter too. Saying love is a battlefield highlights struggle, but love isn't literally deadly, and that gap can be part of the point.
Metaphor or simile: does the difference matter?
A simile keeps the two things a little apart: one is "like" the other. A metaphor fuses them: one simply is the other. That can make a metaphor feel more forceful or more certain, and a simile feel more tentative or more openly imaginative. You don't need to argue that one is better. But if a poem switches from similes to metaphors (or back), that switch may mark a change in how sure the speaker is.
When you write about a metaphor, use a simple frame: "By comparing [main subject] to [comparison subject], the poet suggests that [main subject] is [quality], because [comparison subject] is [quality]." Then explain why that matters in the poem.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Unpacking a metaphor line by line
Here are lines 1–8 of an Emily Dickinson poem published in Poems, Second Series (1891): "Hope is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul, / And sings the tune without the words, / And never stops at all, // And sweetest in the gale is heard; / And sore must be the storm / That could abash the little bird / That kept so many warm." ("Abash" here means to silence or shame.) Explain what the metaphor suggests about hope.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Identify the parts. Main subject: hope. Comparison subject: a bird, "the thing with feathers."
- Step 2: List what transfers. Birds perch (hope rests inside us), sing (hope comforts us), and are small (hope seems fragile).
- Step 3: Look at the details that develop it. It sings "the tune without the words," so hope doesn't need reasons or explanations. It "never stops."
- Step 4: Look at context. The "gale" and "storm" stand for hard times, and that's when the song is "sweetest." A tiny bird surviving a storm suggests that hope is tougher than it looks.
Answer: Model paragraph: Dickinson's metaphor makes hope seem small but stubborn. By calling it "the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul," she gives hope the lightness of a bird that rests inside us without being invited. Its song is "the tune without the words," which suggests that hope comforts us without offering any reasons; it simply keeps singing and "never stops at all." The second stanza tests the comparison: the song is "sweetest in the gale," and only a truly "sore" storm could silence "the little bird." Choosing such a fragile creature makes hope's endurance more striking. The metaphor argues that hope's strength lies in how little it needs.
Common mistakes
- Restating the metaphor ("hope is like a bird") as if that were analysis. Explain which qualities of the bird apply and why.
- Forgetting implied metaphors. A verb like "simmered" or "flooded" can be a metaphor too.
- Reading a metaphor without its context. Check what's happening in the poem before deciding what transfers.
On the exam
- Questions often ask what a metaphor "conveys" or how it "characterizes" something. The best answer names a specific quality that fits the context.
- In essays, follow a metaphor through several lines. Showing how a comparison develops makes your commentary far stronger than naming it once.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
3 questions on 2.6 Metaphors: what one thing lends another. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask” (1895), from Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896)
The “mask” in line 1 is best understood as
Christina Rossetti, “Up-Hill” (1861), from Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
The journey in the poem is best read as a metaphor for
Claude McKay, “The Tropics in New York” (1920), from Harlem Shadows (1922)
The phrases “A wave of longing” (line 10) and “hungry for the old, familiar ways” (line 11) present the speaker's homesickness as
0 of 3 answered