A way into metaphor

You can begin by taking a subject - say the Sun and asking your group to give some describing words/adjectives: Yellow, round, hot, fiery, flashing.

Ask pupils to write down simple similes based on this sentence structure: 
The sun is like a yellow... 
The sun is like a hot....

The group have to think of objects that are yellow, hot etc. This might seem fairly obvious, but the trick is to get them thinking of unusual things - what vegetables, flowers, articles of clothing etc are yellow?

There is no right answer. Do not block anything (within reason or obscenity!) that individuals come up with. The point is to promote spontaneity.

Ask the group to write down their similes:

Grass is like a green jumper, The sun is like a round car tyre, The tree is like a tall fishing rod

We can transform this into a metaphor by simply crossing out the word like.

The grass is a green jumper ...

Explain that metaphor, instead of comparing, turns one object into another. It is a form of magic. The rabbit becomes a dove and flies off into poetry accolade heaven!

To stretch the group further, ask them to develop their image (and I don't mean a new haircut!)

If the tree was a tall fishing rod, what would it catch? A Y10 group in Nuneaton came up with buds for bait. If the sun was a car tyre, where is it going? - the sun is car tyre, zooming round the car of space (Bridget Gibbs, Y8, Stour Valley School). You are trying to find ways to link the images together on one theme. This is more subtle and stretching, but can transform a mundane metaphor into an uncliched and exciting poem. My Heart is an empty eggshell and I'm not yolking (Y8 class in Coventry). In a workshop on bullying, Richard Cox, Y10, wrote His heart is a broken toilet and my youth has gone to waste. Input and group discussion/feedback can help less confident writers.

To complete a poem based on these metaphors, list the metaphors, sandwich style without mentioning the subject of the poem, except as the last word.

Life boat floating round the earth
Car lyre zooming round the roundabout of space
Ball bouncing in the courts of games and gravity,
Tin left open to shine
Small sweet waiting to be eaten by the soft tongue of the clouds
Sun.

(Bridget Gibbs, Y8)

You can also develop all your images around one theme into a conceit. In this group poem, the subject was a tree, and we used the theme of angling to create a wonderful imagistic piece (Chosen by the TES as Poem of The Week)

The tree is a tall fishing rod
With buds for bait
Cloud catcher
In the pool of sky
Feathered fish float by.

(Y 10/11 Group poem, St Thomas More School, Nuneaton)

© Andrew Fusek Peters 

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