Title: The effect of a metaphor on your readers - Writers Online
Headings: The effect of a metaphor on your readers
The effect of a metaphor on your readers
Metaphor is a powerful tool for writers and poets but what effect does it have on your readers?
• ‘ All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’ – William Shakespeare
• ‘ Hope is the thing with feathers’ – Emily Dickinson
• ‘ The parents looked on Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab’ – Roald Dahl
• Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life - Pablo Picasso
Is your mind a bud ready to bloom, your pen a fountain ready to gush? Time to get creative... what you know is magic.

Content: and a skilled writer can use it to illustrate a character’s viewpoint as well as illuminate the narrator’s point of view. • ‘ Hope is the thing with feathers’ – Emily Dickinson
Unlike simile (ie not ‘like a…’), which is a direct comparison, one effect of a metaphor on a reader is that it helps with ‘show not tell’. Metaphor, which allows writers to convey vivid imagery that transcends literal meanings, creates images that are easier to understand and respond to than literal language. Metaphorical language activates the imagination, and the writer is more able to convey emotions and impressions through metaphor. Metaphor expresses nuances for which no standard vocabulary exists, and entices readers to think in abstract ways. • ‘ The parents looked on Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab’ – Roald Dahl
One effect of metaphor is to make writing memorable. Making language more colourful and interesting, it has the effect of charming, or pleasing, or entertaining the reader, making them see something in a whole new light. Through metaphor, a writer can create unique analogies (a little girl/a scab) and add texture and interest to the way things are shown that works much better than factual description. By allowing the writer the possibility of stronger descriptions, metaphor has the effect of creating writing with strong impact and a lasting impression. • Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life - Pablo Picasso
Using metaphor allows a writer to create images related to dreaming, and use words to beautiful effect.