MetaphorCreation’s Forge

PreludeFind Simile and Metaphor in the Shins song, “Pink Bullets”

Pink Bullets - The Shins

I was just bony hands as cold as a winter pole

you held a warm stone out new flowing blood to hold

oh what a contrast you were to the brutes in the halls

my timid young fingers held a decent animal

Over the ramparts you tossed

the scent of your skin and some foreign flowers

tied to a brick sweet as a song

the years have been short but the days were long

Cool of a temperate breeze from dark skies to wet grass

we fell in a field it seems now a thousand summers passed

when our kite lines first crossed we tied them into knots

and to finally fly apart we had to cut them off

Since then it's been a book

you read in reverse

so you understand less as the pages turn

or a movie so crass and awkwardly cast

that even I could be the star

I don’t look back much as a ruleand all this way before murder was coolbut your memory is here and I'd like you to staywarm light on a winter's day

Over the ramparts you tossedthe scent of your skin and some foreign flowerstied to brick sweet as a songthe years have seemed short, but the days go slowly by to loose kites falling from the skydrawn to the ground and an end to flight

Prelude (cont.)

Where are examples of metaphor in the song?

Where are examples of simile in the song?

What makes up a metaphor?

What makes up simile?

Introduction: Leaping Off PointsKelly Gallagher states in his book, Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12, metaphorical thinking has two benefits:

1. Students are more readily able to reach deeper levels of comprehension when they understand metaphor in challenging text.

2. Repeated practice recognizing and analyzing metaphor enables students to generate their own metaphorical connections to the text and to the world, thus sharpening their higher-level thinking skills.

Introduction: Leaping Off Points (cont.)Metaphor is the collision of two ideas which creates, by means of a logical leap, a new third meaning.

“According to Aristotle, the ability to see one thing as another is the only truly creative human act.” (Pattison 24)

Concepts that are seemingly impossible to objectively define, such as love or justice, can only be expressed by our metaphoric connections. For further examination of the nature of metaphor, read Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson.

Inquiry Question

How can I have my students engage in higher order thinking skills by creating original metaphors that would enable them to write more interesting lyrics?

Qualifying Metaphor

Qualifying metaphors are a collision of an adjective with a noun or an adverb with a verb. We’ll be scraping nouns against adjectives to create metaphoric friction. You’ll be working with elbow partners.

1. One of the partners makes a column of 5 interesting nouns.

2. The other partner makes a column of 5 interesting adjectives.

3. Discuss each noun with each adjective. Find the most fresh and different pairing.

4. Individually write a sentence with your qualifying metaphor.

http://muse.fawm.org/lyricloud

Verbal MetaphorConflict between a verb and its subject yields a verbal metaphor. You’ll probably wind up with more vivid metaphors in this type of metaphor. Verbs act. Verbal metaphors tend to be more vibrant.

1. One of the partners makes a column of 5 more interesting nouns. (This might be the partner that chose adjectives last time to vary the activity)

2. The other partner makes a column of 5 interesting verbs.

3. Discuss each noun with each verb. Once again, choose the most unique pairing.

4. Individually write a sentence with your verbal metaphor.

http://muse.fawm.org/lyricloud

Expressed Identity MetaphorExpressed identity metaphors create a new identity by the collision of separate ideas. These metaphors have 3 forms.

x is y

the y of x

x’s y

1. Each partner comes up with their own list of 5 nouns.

2. Discuss each noun pairing. Once again, choose the best pairing. If you don’t find an appealing metaphor by combining column A with column B, also look for pairings within each column.

3. Individually write a sentence with your expressed identity metaphor.

http://muse.fawm.org/lyricloud

Future Steps1. Choose 5 interesting adjectives and then find 1 interesting noun to go with each

one. This time go for a quality metaphor. Take hours. Take days if you have to. Write the list on the cover of your notebook, on your hand, in an email and send it to yourself, or any other way that you can think of that would have you thinking about these words in the back of your mind consistently for days until they really make sense. (at school their assignment would be to come up with 3 thought provoking metaphors by the next class. Rotating blocks) Remember you can come up with vivid adjectives by adding -ed or -ing to a verb. This is called a participle.

2. Now choose 5 nouns and over time choose 1 terrific verb for each one.

3. Now choose 5 verbs and come up with 1 great noun for each. Starting with verbs will be a different process and might give you strange and interesting results.

4. Choose 5 nouns and find an interesting adjective for each. This is the reverse of step 1. Don’t forget that participles make great adjectives.

5. Choose 5 nouns and find a great noun to pair with each. You may find expressed identity metaphors are more difficult. If so, decide what characteristics your noun has and then think of another different noun that has the same characteristics, but is not similar in nature.

Simile’s Similarity

Simile serves a similar purpose, but isn’t as strong.

In the terms of songwriting, you would use simile in the place of metaphor if you wanted two concepts to create the 3rd condition, but retain their own identities.

Pivotal Resources

Gallagher, Kelly. Deeper Reading. Maine: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004.

Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson.  Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Pattison, Pat. Writing Better Lyrics. 2nd ed. Cincinnati: Writer’s Digest Books, 2009.