Emotion in poetry: analogy

According to Prentice Hall Writer’s Companion, “year analogy is an extended comparison in which one thing, usually more familiar, is compared to something less familiar. A striking analogy can make a common theme come alive with new meaning.”

Therefore, if I compare a school to an anthill, I have created an analogy, if I make the comparison long enough.

However, we must not confuse analogy with metaphor or simile. An analogy is an extended comparison, not one of just two or a few other words. In poetry, an analogy is often the entire poem. Some people consider an analogy an extended metaphor.

Let’s examine a poem by Amy Lowell that uses the analogy of mares with night clouds. By describing the images of the mares, she creates the verbal image of clouds on a moonlit night.

night clouds

by Amy Lowell

The white pools of the moon run across the sky

beating their golden hooves on the crystal skies;

The white moon mares are all standing on their hind legs.

Kicking in the green porcelain doors of the remote Heaves.

Fly, Mares!

Do your best.

Scatter the milky dust of the stars,

Or the tiger sun will jump on you and destroy you

With a lick of his vermilion tongue.

(from Prentice Hall’s platinum literature)

Also note the comparison of the sun to a tiger.

Some of my poems are analogies. I would like to share at least two with you:

sad day

The dreamy day outside is gray

Without even a hint of sun.

The clouds creep where our dreams once lay,

Trying to destroy everyone’s fun.

Without even a hint of sun

No rainbow can grace the sky.

Trying to destroy everyone’s fun,

The storm deflects laughter.

No rainbow can grace the sky

With dreary rain falling, never done.

The storm deflects laughter

Before the tears have begun.

With a monotonous rain falling, never ending,

The clouds creep where our dreams once lay

Before the tears have begun.

The dreamy day outside is grey.

(copyright 2005 by Vivian Gilbert Zabel)

“Dreary Day” compares the sad day with the pain. Tears are rain; gray and lack of sun equals lack of joy.

One day trip

The day dawns like a journey.

One leaves the station on a train,

Running past other places

without pause or stop,

Watching blurred faces as they pass,

There is no time to say goodbye.

Over and over again the train speeds up

Until the end of the line you see,

Another sunset below

Without any lasting memories.

(copyright 2005 by Vivian Gilbert Zabel)

“Day’s Journey” allows us to see life as a train journey, one day’s journey at a time.

Hopefully you will now be able to use the analogy in your poetry, as an aid to enhance emotion, or as a way to augment imagery.