Extended Metaphor ♥

Definition: A metaphor which is drawn-out beyond the usual word or phrase to extend throughout a stanza or an entire poem, usually by using multiple comparisons between the unlike objects or ideas.

Example:

If they be two, they are two so

As still twin compasses are two;

Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if th'other do.

And though it in the center sit,

Yet when the other far doth roam,

It lean and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home

('A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning' - John Donne.)

Significance: Extended metaphor is important because it has more metaphor per stanza in order to make the reader not to be boring. Poem usually long but extended metaphor attracts people to read that poem. It has the same goal as the metaphor but it takes longer for the reader to get the message.