Metaphor

An implied comparison is called a metaphor; it is a more terse form of expre ion than the simile. Take, for example, this sentence from Spenser's "Philosophy of Style": "As, in pa ing through the crystal, beams of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow; so, in traversing the soul of the poet, the colorle rays of truth are transformed into brightly-tinted poetry." Expre ed in metaphors, this becomes: "The white light of truth, in traversing the many-sided, transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into iris-hued poetry." Worcester's definition of a metaphor is: "A figure of speech founded on the resemblance which one object is supposed to bear, in some respect, to another, or a figure by which a word is transferred from a subject to which it properly belongs to another, in such a manner that a comparison is implied, though not formally expre ed ; a comparison or simile comprised in a word; as, 'Thy word is a lamp to my feet.'" A metaphor differs from a simile in being expre ed without any sign of comparison; thus, "the silver moon" is a metaphor ; "the moon is bright as silver" is a simile. Examples: "But look, the morn, in ru et mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill." "Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased— Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow?" "At length Erasmus Stemmed the wild torrent of a barbarous age, And drove those holy Vandals off the stage." "Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent."