Metaphor is a form of figurative language that can be used as a literary technique. A metaphor is a way to compare two different things to make an interesting connection in the reader’s mind. For more information on how to identify and use metaphor in writing, please check out our Metaphor worksheets. Read on for 30 examples of metaphor, including many metaphor examples from literature.
Metaphor Examples
- Metaphor Examples: Time is a rushing river.
- Metaphor Examples: Love is the dessert of life.
- Metaphor Examples: A family is a wolf pack in the wild forest.
- Metaphor Examples: My cat is a furry alien that has come to study our ways.
- Metaphor Examples: She is a delicate orchid blooming in the shade.
- Metaphor Examples: He is a gentle breeze that calms me down.
- Metaphor Examples: My parents are the sturdy branches from which all of us flowers grow.
- Metaphor Examples: The lawn is a beautiful green blanket we spread out every summer.
- Metaphor Examples: Snow drifts cover the city in sparkling diamonds.
- Metaphor Examples: Her eyes are two emeralds.
- Metaphor Examples: His cheeks are red apples.
- Metaphor Examples: The boys are puppies chasing their favorite toy.
- Metaphor Examples: The classroom is a magic box full of tricks to discover.
- Metaphor Examples: You are the sky and the stars, and I am the earth and the sea.
- Metaphor Examples: Her necklace is a constellation of stars against her skin.
Metaphor Examples From Literature
The following examples are all quoted from various works of literature, including poems, plays, stories and novels.
- Metaphor Examples: “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” – William Shakespeare
- Metaphor Examples: “Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky.” – Kahlil Gibran
- Metaphor Examples: ““I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.” – Mother Teresa
- Metaphor Examples: “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” – Virginia Woolf
- Metaphor Examples: “’Life’ wrote a friend of mine, ‘is a public performance on the violin, in which you must learn the instrument as you go along.’” – E.M. Forster
- Metaphor Examples: “But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.” – John Updike
- Metaphor Examples: “Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you drown.” – Margaret Atwood
- Metaphor Examples: “All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.” – Albert Einstein
- Metaphor Examples: “A good conscience is a continual Christmas.” – Benjamin Franklin
- Metaphor Examples: “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” – Pablo Picasso
- Metaphor Examples: “The hours here are flat and round, disks of gray layered one on top of the other…they move slowly, at a grind, until it seems as though they are not moving at all.” – Lauren Oliver
- Metaphor Examples: “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
- Metaphor Examples: “She was a mind floating in an ocean of confusion.” – Caroline B. Cooney
- Metaphor Examples: “Life is a hurricane, and we board up to save what we can and bow low to the earth to crouch in that small space above the dirt where the wind will not reach.” – Jesmyn Ward
- Metaphor Examples: “’Hope’ is the thing with feathers.” – Emily Dickinson
Check out our Free, Printable Metaphor Worksheets. Need more clarification about Metaphors? Read a more detailed Metaphor Definition.