The Writing Experiment by Hazel Smith

metonymy exist in, and are dependent on each other, is also discussed at
length in Hyperscapes in the Poetry of Frank O’Hara: Difference, Homosex-
uality, Topography (Smith 2000a, pp. 80–101).

Morphing metaphors

As writers we can confront the differences that metaphor suppresses and
turn them into a creative source. If the normal objective of a metaphor is
to make a one-to-one comparison, then we can open it up by introducing
multiple comparisons, or comparisons in which difference outweighs
similarity. In this way we can create ‘open’ rather than ‘closed’ metaphors.
The orthodox approach to metaphor is that it must be based on a one-to-
one comparison, and that metaphors should never be ‘mixed’. According
to this view, a metaphor such as ‘my anger gathered pace, then shut its
eyes’ is ‘bad’ because it is inconsistent: the two parts of the metaphor do
not refer to the same ground of comparison. But, in fact, stimulating
metaphors often involve comparisons which are wild, extravagant, in-
congruous, multiple or mixed. They may be more energising because
they continuously refocus our attention, as one metaphor morphs into
the next. Let’s look at an example:

Example 8.9

Like musical instruments

Abandoned in a field

The parts of your feelings

Are starting to know a quiet

From ‘ “Like Musical Instruments.. .” ’ (Clark 1994, p. 395)

The breathtaking simile, by American poet Tom Clark, which opens his
poem ‘ “Like Musical Instruments.. .” ’ consists of a number of compo-
nents. There is the comparison between the feelings and abandoned
musical instruments, but each part of the comparison is also a very pow-
erful image in itself. The musical instruments abandoned in a field are
silent because no one is playing them. The feelings are in parts, presum-
ably because they are conflicting. Brought together the two images suggest
that the feelings are calming down, that is, ‘starting to know a quiet’. So
there are several metaphors within an overall simile.
Similarly, in the opening of the poem ‘Crossing the Bar’, by American
poet Susan Schultz, one comparison falls quickly on the heels of the one
before, as it does in many of her dizzy and dazzling poems:

172 The Writing Experiment