Metaphor Examples & Metaphor Poems
This page includes many metaphor examples and metaphor poems. Metaphors are an extremely useful literary device -- whether you are writing a funny poem, a serious poem, structured poetry, or free verse. In fact, novelists and nonfiction writers alike use metaphors. To use a metaphor is human, even if you are not a writer. Here's why . . .
Definition of Metaphor A metaphor is a literary device that involves describing someone or something by comparing it to something else without use of "like" or "as." Comparisons that use "like" or "as" are
similes
, another well-used device. Metaphors and
similes
are two figures of speech that bring symbolism into our writing. And humans love symbolism. We like to feel that things "mean something," and metaphors help satisfy that desire. Not only that, these similes and metaphorical comparisons paint a vivid picture in our minds.
Generally, when I'm writing, I don't consciously think, "Gee, I'd better pepper these babies with metaphors." Instead, metaphor examples and metaphor poems happen when you relax and describe something in the most vivid way possible.

For example, a metaphor can be a tight skirt, tantalizing, seamless and very brief.
Metaphor Examples
If you're interested in writing some metaphor poems, perhaps these metaphor examples can rev you up and get you started. (Please note that you were just compared to a car, "revving up," in what was a subtle metaphor example.) His face was a blue moon pocked with craters.Her eyes were darting searchlights, scanning the room for her rival.The Ferrari was a personal jet, set to take off before dawn.His teeth were hardened blue cheese nuggets, speckled with green and black.When he ate, he was a crocodile, opening wide and snapping his jaws suddenly for the kill.Her purse was a soft-sided trash bin, filled to the top with bits of used tissues, crumpled papers, and a half-eaten apple.Her house was a wild circus act, decked out in hot pink and lavender, coated with green dots.She was a walking color wheel, always wearing just about every shade possible, all at once.He was a stainless steel ruler, tall, straight and always measured in response.Her hair was a fierce lion's mane, never washed and sticking out in wild directions.Her elderly fingers were thin gnarled branches, twisting oddly from the stem of her palms.
Well, that was fun! I could write metaphor examples all day. The trick is to expand upon them to tell a story, or in my case, write a poem (or two or three or more). And so, we move on to the "metaphor poems."
Metaphor Poems
Technically, there is no such thing as a "metaphor poem." Unless we'd like to create a new poetic form; it's done all the time. Instead, there are poems with metaphors in them, poems that make use of metaphor to be most effective. I've gathered up two of my poems with metaphors in them. The first is from page 42 of my book,
A Little Bit of Nonsense.
In this poem, the poem and the words themselves are metaphors. You can't really take a poem to lunch. (Well, you could take a book, but that's not the intended meaning of the poem.) And words don't "simmer," "blend", and words most certainly do not eat a "wholesome brunch." Read the following and decide for yourself. . .
Take a Poem to Lunch I'd love to take a poem to lunch or treat it to a wholesome brunch of fresh cut fruit and apple crunch. I'd spread it neatly on the cloth beside a bowl of chicken broth and watch a mug of root beer froth. I'd feel the words collect the mood, the taste and feel of tempting food popped in the mouth and slowly chewed, and get the smell of fresh baked bread that sniffs inside and fills your head with thoughts that no word ever said. And as the words rest on the page beside the cumin, salt and sage, and ever slowly starts to age, like soup that simmers as it's stirred, ingredients get mixed and blurred and blends in taste with every word until the poet gets it right, the taste and smell and sound and sight, the words that make it fit. Just write.
by Denise Rodgers Copyright© Denise Rodgers
A Little Bit of Nonsense
All Rights Reserved Art by
Julie Martin
The next poem, from page 76 of my book,
A Little Bit of Nonsense,
is also loaded with metaphors. You don't really dig for a poem, or for a clue. There is no shovel involved, but it does make a nice metaphor, or picture, in your mind. And when was the last time you saw rhythm and meter "prancing and romancing"? Read on and see how many metaphors you can find in this poem.

Mining for a Poem Mining for a poem pining to go home to where the rhyme and meter make some sense. Digging for a clue for what my words should do all safely bound within a picket fence. Searching for a rhyme is not a waste of time, and rhythm must be meter's closest friend. Together they go dancing, lithely prancing and romancing till the poem comes to a satisfying end.
by Denise Rodgers Copyright© Denise Rodgers
A Little Bit of Nonsense
All Rights Reserved Art by
Julie Martin
If you've enjoyed these metaphor poems and metaphor examples, please go to my HOME PAGE for a selection of funny poems on many topics.
Or you may go directly to:
Simile Poems
Funny Sonnets

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