metaphor

	A comparison made by referring to one thing as another.

Examples
	No man is an island —John Donne For ever since that time you went away I've been a rabbit burrowed in the wood —Maurice Sceve Life is a beach. Who captains the ship of state?
Related Figures
	simile Like a metaphor, a simile involves making a comparison (except it does so explicitly). catachresis allegory An allegory is an extended metaphor that goes through a whole narrative.
Related Topics of Invention
	Comparison Since a metaphor is based on an implied comparison, it is most closely related to this topic of invention. Similarity / Difference Since this topic of invention often takes the form of arguing by analogy, it is related to the figure metaphor since a metaphor is a kind of analogy.
See Also
	Pathos Because metaphors are often concrete and sensory, they can affect the audience's emotions.

	Sources:	Ad Herennium 4.34.45 ("translatio"); Quintilian 8.6.4-18; Susenbrotus (1540) 7 ("metaphor," "translatio"); Sherry (1550) 40 ("metaphora," "translatio," "translacion"); Fraunce (1588) 1.7; Putt. (1589) 189 ("metaphora," "figure of transsporte"); Day 1599 77 ("metaphora"); Hoskins 1599 8 ("metaphor," "translation"); Melanchthon (1531) a8r

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Gideon O. Burton, Brigham Young University
Please cite "Silva Rhetoricae" (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Trees | SILVA RHETORICAE | Flowers

met’-a-phor	from meta “beyond, over” and pherein “to carry”
	*metaphora*
	*translatio*
	*translation, figure of transport*