Extended metaphor

An extended metaphor is a single metaphor that a writer develops over several lines, a paragraph or even a whole text. It is not dropped after one image. The writer keeps returning to the same comparison, adding new details that fit the picture.

The metaphor grows richer and more persuasive as it goes. Because it runs through the writing, an extended metaphor can carry a theme, structure a description or make an abstract idea vivid and coherent. It unites many small images under one controlling idea.

In Literature and reading, tracing an extended metaphor shows you can follow a writer's thinking across a whole passage. This earns more than commenting on isolated images. Explaining how the comparison develops demonstrates structural reading.

In descriptive and creative writing, sustaining one strong metaphor gives a piece unity. It also shows the examiner deliberate craft.

A writer might describe a difficult year entirely as a long winter, with frozen hopes, short days and, at the close, the first thaw of recovery.

Identify the controlling comparison and gather the details that keep it alive across the passage. Then explain how developing it deepens meaning or theme. Comment on how it changes from beginning to end.

In your own writing, plan one metaphor you can extend logically and add matching details. Do not mix several unrelated comparisons, which would confuse the reader.

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