Metaphors

From Think and Speak

A metaphor is a figure of speech, such as ‘I smell at rat’, ‘he’s just a paper tiger’, ‘the club is swimming in debts’, ‘he’s toast!’ or ‘Westminster is the mother of Parliaments’. As a rule, when we say such things we don’t mean them literally. We say them because they create a powerful mental image that is much more effective than the literal truth. The Bible is full of metaphors: I am the door, the Lord is my rock and my fortress, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, etc..

A related figure of speech is the simile. ‘My son is as brave as a lion’ is a simile. ‘My son is a lion’ is a metaphor. ‘She’s like a breath of fresh air’ is a simile. ‘She’s a breath of fresh air’ is a metaphor. With a simile, there’s always a tell-tale ‘as...as’ or ‘like’. Metaphors simply do without them. In creating metaphor, it can be helpful to start with a simile.

Use each word below in a metaphor. Try to create sentences that show clearly why the word has been chosen.

IShield. IILadder. IIIProp. IVRoad. VBurn. VIBlow. VIIHeart.

A Most Successful Holiday

By A. G. Gardiner

I recently added this post, A Most Successful Holiday.

The author, Alfred George Gardiner, was a columnist for the long-running evening newspaper the Star (which was later absorbed into the Daily Mail) during and after the Great War. Gardiner wrote about matters which appealed to ordinary people in a manner that was light, yet treated his readers with respect. This extract, from the start of a piece entitled “On Coming Home”, is just such an essay. He explores that paradox that a holiday can be too enjoyable: if its effect is to send us home still wanting to be away, it has not done its job.

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For each word below, suggest words that rhyme with it. See if you can think of at least the number indicated.

1 Water. (4)

2 Double. (4)

3 Love. (4)

Suggested Rhymes (A-Z)

The Object of a Liberal Education

By Thomas Henry Huxley

I recently added this post, The Object of a Liberal Education.

This is an extract from an address by Thomas Huxley, the eminent Victorian biologist, to the South London Working Men’s College in 1868. This was the year that the College was founded by philanthropist William Rossiter, and Huxley was speaking to the students in his capacity as the College’s first Principal. Naturally, he chose to lay before them his vision of education, and as the college leant towards the Arts, of a liberal education in particular.

Many goals have been set for education over the years. Huxley’s was unusual. He argued that life would be much smoother if people knew what Mother Nature, whose pitiless ways Huxley had come to respect in his collaboration with Charles Darwin, had in store for them. The task of teachers was to help young people realise that the secret of a happy life was to work with Nature, and not against her.

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Come, Holy Ghost, All-Quick’ning Fire

By Charles Wesley

I have added a new hymn to the collection, Come, Holy Ghost, All-Quick’ning Fire by Charles Wesley.

Hymns and indeed prayers to the Holy Spirit are not particularly common, but Charles Wesley composed several hymns to or about the Spirit. This hymn focuses on the idea (taken from St Paul’s letters) of the Holy Spirit as God’s royal seal on the Christian’s soul, a stamped image marking the believer out as redeemed by and for God. The idea comes from St Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians:

Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

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Quad

From Polywords

I have added a new Polyword to the collection.

Make as many words as you can using only the nine letters you are given below. Your words should all be four letters or more in length, and they should all contain the letter highlighted in the centre of the grid. You may not use the same letter twice. There is one nine-letter word to find.