‘I’m a handkerchief holding us through life’s storms’: Metaphor Poems

Students read the poem, ‘Metaphors’ by Sylvia Plath, and then wrote their own metaphor-based poems.

“Metaphors” by Sylvia Plath
I’m a riddle in nine syllables,
An elephant, a ponderous house,
A melon strolling on two tendrils.
O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!
This loaf’s big with its yeasty rising.
Money’s new-minted in this fat purse.
I’m a means, a stage, a cow in calf.
I’ve eaten a bag of green apples,
Boarded the train there’s no getting off.

Lesson Note:
• When you communicate an idea with a metaphor, you light up people’s sensory and motor neurons.
• You also activate emotions, prompt aha moments, and reward your audience with a sense of social interaction.
• When you’re trying to persuade, you might first seek a good story, but you may do better to seek a metaphor.-Psychology Today, ‘Want to be Persuasive? Find a Metaphor’ by Bill Birchard, 2023