Chapter 2: Similes and Metaphors

First responders

In the reading “What’s It like? Simile, Metaphor, and other figures”, it talks about how the mind itself operates by finding likenesses. It is often expressed by simile or metaphor. A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared and metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. Money was one example that was use when comparing with time, that time is money. It is referring to the notion that time is valuable and money is wasted when a person’s time is not used productively. It also talks about how we save time, waste time, spend time, have extra time to give to someone, etc. This is when we use metaphor to identity something that associate with something else.

The poem The Silken Tent by Robert Frost is an example of using simile and metaphor. It is beautiful poem that can be interpreted differently by different people. You can say that the tent is a metaphor for woman, set out for us in the field that represents society; the pole is the masculine strength and support for the feminine side which is pictured as the ‘tent’. The countless silken ties of love and thought can be her love, loyalty, trust and care to everything around her. The movement of the tent in the capriciousness of summer air, as the woman does something playful or naughty when warm and emotional, she is reminded of her responsibility and that she should go back to her duties.